PANANIA, NEW SOUTH WALES

'Panania' is a suburb in south-western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located 23 kilometres south-west of the central business district in the local government area of the City of Bankstown. The postcode is 2213, which it shares with adjacent suburbs East Hills and Picnic Point.
Panania is bounded on the north by the M5 South Western Motorway and the suburb of Milperra. Picnic Point, to the south, features parklands along the Georges River. East Hills is the suburb to the west and Revesby is located to the east.

Contents

Commercial Area

Transport

Churches

Schools

Dwellings

Sport

History

Notable residents

See also

References

External links

Commercial Area

Panania has a shopping area adjacent to Panania railway station. It runs along Weston Street, Anderson Street and Tower Street. Anderson street features several local government facilities including a senior citizens centre and a public library.
Panania Hotel is located on the northern side of Panania railway station.

Transport

Panania railway station is on the East Hills line of the CityRail network. Parts of Panania are serviced by buses operated by Veolia Transport NSW, generally following the routes established by McVicar's Bus Service.
The East Hills railway line, which originally terminated one stop away at East Hills divided the suburb into two distinct precincts. During the 1980s, the railway line was extended with a rail bridge over the Georges River, to Campbelltown. This had the effect of raising Panania's suburban status as it was no longer second last on the line, but comfortably midway.

Churches

Panania features notable buildings such as Holy Trinity Anglican Church and St Christopher's Catholic Church. St Christopher's is housed in one of the oldest buildings in Panania, the converted Panania Star Art Deco cinema, which retains a number of original features, including a decorative ceiling. After a grant from the Sydney Archdiocese and many donations from parishoners, St. Christopher's underwent renovations costing $165,000 which were completed early in 2006. The Salvation Army also has a Corps there, the old building was recently refurbished.

Schools

Panania Public School, Panania North Public School, Tower Street Public School, St Christopher's Catholic School].

Dwellings

Panania is mostly a residential suburb, which was developed after World War II and contains many modest freestanding bungalows built from asbestos cement sheeting (commonly known as fibro).

Sport

Panania is home to two soccer clubs, St Christopher's Soccer Club is based at Marco Reserve and Panania-East Hills RSL Youth Soccer Club play at Kelso Reserve.

History

Originally Panania was part of the East Hills area. The name Panania was given to the area when the East Hills railway line was completed in 1931. Panania is an Aboriginal word meaning ''sun rising in the east and shining on the hills''. It has been alternatively suggested that the name may have in fact been based on that of Pannonia, which was an ancient province of the Roman Empire southeast of the Danube River. During the construction of the line the name Nioka was used for the station which is an Aboriginal word meaning ''the green hill''. Other names suggested for suburb were Linden Park and Elmswood.

St Christopher's Catholic Church on Tower Street was originally the Panania Star cinema. Panania North Public School, a short two block walk on the northern side of the railway line, became a demonstration school in the late 1970s so that trainee teachers from newly established, Milperra College of Advanced Education, could observe teachers at work.

Notable residents

The following are or have been residents of Panania:

★ Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh, former Australian cricketers, attended Panania Public School and East Hills Boys Technology High School.

★ Ian Thorpe, Olympic gold medalist swimmer, attended East Hills Boys Technology High School.

★ Actor Bryan Brown also hails from Panania.

See also

★ Bankstown Bunker - A disused RAAF operations bunker that was used during World War II.

References

★ West of the River Road, by Jacqueline Davies, Dorothy Mulholland, Nora Pipe(1979). Towrang Publications, p20.

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

External links