Suburb Profiles

Castle Hill, New South Wales

Have a Castle Hill Property Manager contact you about managing your Ryde Investment Property

Have a Castle Hill Real Estate Agent contact you about selling your Ryde Property

Castle Hill is a suburb in the north-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Castle Hill is located 31 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district, in the Hills District of the Greater Western Sydney region. Castle Hill is the administrative centre of the local government area of The Hills Shire and part of the suburb is located in the local government area of Hornsby Shire.

Castle Hill's commercial area centres around a section of the Old Northern Road at the suburb's eastern side. Its southern side is an older, traditional shopping strip, with the modest-sized Castle Mall shopping centre. Its northern side is dominated by the large Castle Towers shopping centre, with two department stores as well as two Greater Union cinema multiplexes (giving a total of 16 Cinemas). A new library and community centre, with a unit apartment building on its upper floors, opened next to Castle Towers in 2004.

Work has been started by the local council to convert the stretch of Old Northern Road between Castle Mall and Castle Towers, into a plaza walk way. The main traffic road would therefore be diverted through the nearby, Terminus Street. A $500 million plan to add 60,000 square metres to the Castle Towers Shopping District is currently being tabled by the The Hills Shire Council and, if approved, Castle Towers will become the largest shopping centre in New South Wales, with a total of 170,000 square metres of active floorspace. Work on the centre is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

Castle Hill also has a light industrial area at the suburb's western side. It is linked with the commercial area by Showground Road. The Hills Shire Council chamber, the Hills Centre performing arts complex, and the Castle Hill Showground all situated next to the industrial area.

The largest residential area in Castle Hill is located at the two sides of Showground Road, sandwiched between the commercial and the industrial area. Smaller residential areas are located at the east of the commercial area, as well as the suburb's north-east (part of Hornsby Shire, separated by Old Northern Road and Castle Hill Road). These consist almost entirely of free-standing houses. Several government and private schools, as well as an RSL Club, are located within these areas. To the North of Showground Road lies suburban Knightsbridge, with approximately 1000 homes, the Samuel Gilbert Public School, Castle Glen Oval and the Knightsbridge Shopping Court. South of Showground Road, and to the east of Old Northern Road, lies the East Excelsior section of the suburb, known for its leafy streets, mature gardens and established homes on large land parcels, which is adjacent to Bidjigal Reserve. Managed by a community Trust, Bidjigal Reserve is about 186ha of bushland located within the Sydney suburbs of Castle Hill, West Pennant Hills, North Rocks and Baulkham Hills. There are many walking trails, and three marked tracks: Platypus loops along creeks from the entrance at Excelsior Ave; Burraga follows creeks and climbs Bald Hill from Platypus track, and the Murri Yanna begins at Aiken Road or Heidi Place and follows Darling Mills Creek to North Parramatta.

The bulk of Castle Hill residents own private vehicles and travel to work using these, however bus services service the suburb. Castle Hill was once served by the Rogan's Hill railway line to Parramatta, which closed in 1932. There have been various plans to build railway lines through the suburb but none have ever progressed past the proposal stage.

Castle Hill is well served by private buses such as Hillsbus and Busways, which offer express services to the Sydney CBD, as well as linking the suburb to other nearby major centres such as Parramatta and Pennant Hills and rail stations.

There are many schools in the Castle Hill area, including:

• Gilroy College - Catholic High School
• William Clarke College - Private Anglican School, K-12
• Oakhill College - Catholic High School
• St. Bernadette's - Catholic Co-Educational Primary School
• Castle Hill High School - Public High School
• Castle Hill Public - Public Primary School
• Excelsior Public - Public Primary School
• Samuel Gilbert Public School - Public Primary School
• St. Angela's - Catholic Co-Educational Primary School
• Oakhill Drive Public School - Public Primary School
• Baulkham Hills High School - Public Secondary School

The Hills Centre for the Performing Arts is a unique and versatile Theatre/Convention venue located on Showground Road, Castle Hill. Opened in late 1988 and under the ownership of the The Hills Shire Council it is one of the largest and most exciting venues of this type in New South Wales. It is a world class concert/conference venue which includes full production facilities which can be used in all modes including exhibition.

The Powerhouse Discovery Centre Collection Stores at Castle Hill is part of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, along with the Powerhouse Museum in Darling Harbour and Sydney Observatory at the Rocks. The Powerhouse Discovery Centre is the Museum’s off-site storage and collection care facility, located on the corner of Windsor and Showground roads in Castle Hill. The Museum’s unique and diverse collection of 385,000 objects spans history, science, technology, design, industry, decorative arts, music, transport and space exploration. The Discovery Centre houses 40 per cent of the collection (by volume), or about 50,000 objects and is now open to the general public.

Access programs include monthly public open days (on the second Saturday of each month); themed supervised tours into stores on site; educational programs and workshops, tours for school groups and special-interest groups; school holiday programs; community engagement programs; regional partnership events; and specialist/industry and professional development programs. These provide insight not only to the Powerhouse collection but to the important preservation undertaken there.

The Hills Craft Markets are open the fourth Sunday of each month, except January. A variety of arts and crafts and foods are offered for sale. Children can enjoy plaster painting, music, riding and playing in the showground.

In late March the annual Castle Hill Agricultural Show is held at the Castle Hill Showground. This show dates back to the 1880s and reflects the heritage of the Hills District. The show is mainly agricultural with many sheep, cattle and horse competitions on every year. The Castle Hill show also includes novelty games and items, showbags and educational stalls. The show runs for three days over the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).

 

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle Hill,_New_South_Wales