GYMEA, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Gymea' is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gymea is located 26km south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. The postcode is 2227, which it shares with adjacent suburb Gymea Bay.

Contents

Commercial Area

Transport

Education

Churches

Culture

Art

Sport

Pop Culture

Events

History

References

External links

Commercial Area

Gymea is primarily a low density, residential suburb. Located close to Gymea railway station, the suburb's shopping strip is known as Gymea Shopping Village. Over the last decade it has become a popular shopping and 'café culture' district with many cafés, restaurants, boutiques and gourmet food shops opened along Gymea Bay Road one of the first being Caruso's Italian Restaurant, voted best Pizza in Sydney www.carusos.net.au. Development of such businesses has been to the detriment of some nearby suburbs such as Caringbah and Kirrawee.

Transport

Gymea railway station is on the Cronulla branch of the Illawarra railway line, part of the City Rail network, which provides regular rail services to the city. Gymea railway station is on Gymea Bay Road, in the middle of the main shopping area. Adjacent stations are Kirrawee and Miranda. Private buses, principally operated by Veolia NSW also service the local area and provide school student transport.

Education

The suburb has one public primary school, Gymea North Public School; a Catholic primary school, St Catherine Labouré Primary; and a secondary school, Gymea Technology High School. Many children in Gymea attend schools in Gymea Bay and Kirrawee. Gymea is also home to a campus of the South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE.

Churches

★ St Pauls and St Barnabas Anglican Church

★ St Catherine Labouré Catholic Church

★ St Stylianos Greek Orthodox Church (officially known as St Stylianos, Saints Peter and Paul, St Gregory of Palamas) [1]

★ Gymea Baptist Church [2]

★ Gymea People's Church [3]

Culture

Art

Gymea is home to the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, which features art galleries, art studios, a theatrette, gardens, meeting rooms, gallery shop and cafe. A number of special events are held at the gallery throughout the year.

Sport

Like many suburbs in the Sutherland Shire, Gymea maintains an active culture of youth sport and has well-established cricket, rugby league, Swimming (Gymea Bay Amatuer Swimming Club), soccer (Gymea United FC) and netball clubs.

Pop Culture

Australian writer Scot McPhie named his collection of poetry published in 1999 'Gymea', after living near the suburb in the 1990s.

Events

★ The Gymea Village Fair is held every year in the last Sunday in October. The streets are closed for stalls, arts and crafts, rides and music.

★ At Christmas every year, Gymea shops awnings are decorated with giant Santas. It is unknown if this is going to happen this year (2007) after last years accident.

★ The last friday of every month is bargain day when you can grab a really good bargain.

History

The Gymea Lily, ''Doryanthes excelsa'' is a 6m tall perennial that is prevalent in the area. It was named by the local Eora people and became the inspiration for the suburb's name, by government surveyor W.A.B. Geaves in 1855. The Gymea Lily has been adopted as a symbol of the area and features on the crest of many local organisations. Development in the area has eradicated most of the lillies but many can still be found, a few kilometres south, in the Royal National Park.
By the 1920s, steam trams operated between Cronulla and Sutherland, via Gymea. The railway station on the line to Cronulla opened in 1939.

References

★ History of Sutherland Shire Placenames

★ ''The Book of Sydney Suburbs'', Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8

External links