EMU HEIGHTS, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Emu Heights' is a suburb of the City of Penrith Local Government Area, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated some 58 km west of Sydney, on the fringe of the Sydney metropolitan area.^[1] Sitting on the Blue Mountains Escarpment the suburb is on the edge of the City of Penrith, bounded as it is to the West by the Nepean River and the Blue Mountains Local Government Area. It was established by George Innes, a free settler from Bathurst, who, in 1831, obtained 400 acres near McCann's Island and named it Emu Heights. It wasn't until early 1976, however, that the name "Emu Heights" was officially assigned to the neighbourhood.^[2] According to the 2001 census, Emu Heights has a population 3321 and a population density of 9.63 people per hectare.

Contents

Clissold Park

Emu Heights Public School

Fish & Chip Shop

References

External links

Clissold Park

Clissold park has ever been an attraction to Emu Heights. Many school age 'Heightians' convene on the park, after the school, to play on the set of swings and slippery dip. Clissold Park is host to great diversity of Australia's fauna and flora and features a peaceful stream that flows down from the mountain. Clissold Park, however, lacks the sports facilities of Hunter Fields and Dukes Oval in Emu Plains, which are home to Soccer, AFL, and, in the summer, cricket.

Emu Heights Public School

In 1972, Emu Heights Public School was founded. At its beginnings the school had only eighty seven pupils and three teachers, although now has over three hundred students enrolled.^[3] The school's teaching revolves around seven Key Learning Areas, English, Mathematics, Science, ICT, Human society and its environment, the Creative Arts and Personal Health and Social Development.
The school has a few unique identifiers: Principal Mike Prunty's infamous magpie safety speech and 'Letter days'. These are when students choose an outfit beginning with a particular letter. Recently the school hosted an 'S' day, which resulted in many sailor and sausage costumes.

Fish & Chip Shop

Of great community pride was the fish and chip shop, which existed for many years, until it was recently bought out.
The legacy of this once proud fish and chip shop began in 1984 when Jimmy and Jeff bought the store where the Fish and Chip Shop was to be located. Affectionately known to the as "Jimmy's" the shop was largely popular among the townsfolk.
Open from 8:00am through to 8:30pm the residents purchased their newspapers, groceries, snacks and hearty meals from this wonderful store.
The store's popularity greatly increased in 1998 when Smiths included Dragonball Z tazos in their chip packets. A huge hit at Emu Heights Public School, children before and after school made their way to the Fish and Chip Shop to purchase their chips and proceeded to take the tazo from the pack and throw the chips in the bin.
Unfortunately, Jimmy and Jeff sold the store in 2000 due to a family relocation and the store was bought by a Vietnamese family.
The size of the chip boxes became smaller and the prices began to rise, much to the anger of the Emu Heightians. Lacking the support of the town, the store was once again up for lease in 2001.
Soon after the store found a new owner in David's family's friends. Friendly and great chip makers, the new owners began to win the customers back to the famed store. Bringing out free water to people who could not afford a drink with their chips assured that many a customer ate their food at the store, not elsewhere. Ultimately due to commitments to work, friends of David's family could not continue to run the store.
The next owners of the store were perhaps the most depressing the town has seen. Trying to turn a simple fish and chip shop into a video store fish shop in 2003, the public turned their back on the store with the prices rising and a poor selection of DVDs and video games. Their mind was obviously not in the game and on other things such as the children's schooling and grave sickness to the father of the family. The store was once again up for lease in 2004.

References

1. Penrith City Council, City of Penrith
2. Penrith City Council, Local Suburb Profiles
3. Emu Heights Public School

External links