Sunbury, Victoria

From Free net encyclopedia

Sunbury is a town in located in Victoria, Australia.

1 History
2 Culture
3 Transport
4 Local Swimming Locations
5 Sport
6 Politics
7 People from Sunbury

History

Sunbury was first settled in 1836, by George Evans and William Jackson. It was Jackson and his brother, Samuel, who named the township Sunbury, after Sunbury-on-Thames, in Surrey, England.

In 1837, William "Big" Clarke, came to the area, and gained vast pastoral licences in and around Sunbury. In 1874, Clarke's son, William, built a mansion, which resides on an estate named "Rupertswood", after his own son, Rupert.

The younger William, Sir William as he was to become, was the president of the Melbourne Cricket Club, and it was through his position that the touring English cricket team came to spend Christmas of 1882 at Rupertswood. On Christmas Eve, the English team played a social game of cricket against a local team, which they won. Lady Clarke took one or more bails, burnt them, and interred the Ashes in a wooden urn, which she presented to the English Captain, Ivo Bligh. She proposed that the urn be used as a perpetual trophy for matches between the two countries. The Ashes have since become one of the world's most sought-after sporting trophies.

In 1922, the Clarke family sold the property to H V McKay, the owner of the Sunshine Harvester company, who subsequently onsold it in 1927 to the Salesian Catholic order. To this day the mansion and surrounding property has been used for educational and agricultural purposes, and was until recently a boarding school for students of both academic and agricultural endeavours. (Sallesian College)

In the early 1970s the area (which was then still largely rural) became famous in Australia as the site of the Sunbury Music Festival, which was held annually from 1972 to 1975.

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Culture

Sunbury's residents represent diverse cultural backgrounds, partly due to the working class background, and proximity to major manufacturing and transport hubs, with Melbourne Airport only being 15 kilometers from the township. A recent trend for people who work in the Melbourne CBD to trade longer commute times for a more economic lifestyle (due to cheaper housing), has seen the population of Sunbury grow in number, with numerous new housing estates ringing the borders of the established township. Sunbury's population was recorded as being 25156 in the 2001 census. Sunbury has a high caucasian population, but as more immigrant families move it becomes a more multicultural community.

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Transport

Sunbury Station is connected to Melbourne by V/Line services on the Bendigo train line. Due to the diesel rolling stock utilised, and the lack of overhead electric lines, these service are not as frequent as those enjoyed by those on the metropolitan Metlink service. However, services are generally faster than they are for suburbs of equvalent distances on the other side of the city due to less frequent stops. Another benefit of this service is increased security, due to the presence of conductors on all services. Peak times are poorly catered for by the regional timetable (which are frequently delayed or cancelled), and off peak service can be scarce, especially those provided on weekends.

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Local Swimming Locations

Sunbury has many local swimming spots the main three are known as The Nook, Venus and The Glade The Nook being the most easly accessible and more popular spot for non locals it is found in the park also called "The Nook" at the bottom of goonawarra hill. At the nook there is a tree which locals have dubbed branches as levels ranging from level 1 to 4 then higher up is The Rope, "The Slingshot" a branch which is very flexible and has a sling shot effect when jummping off of it then there is the highest branch able to be climbed to "Maniac" which would be about egiht meters above the water.the second spot is "Venus",Venus is difficult to get to as you have to go to the Sunbury Water treatment plant then cross a large hill to get to the spot where the is a cliff about 6 meters above the water this is a particulary dangerous spot as the water is dirty and lots of rocks and its inconveniace to get makes it a rarly used spot. Finaly "The Glade" The Glade is ten km out of the sunbury centre and is easy to get to as there is a road which goes all the way there at the glade the water is cleaner than The nook or venus and it has a very big tarzan robe which some locals can get at least 7 meters air having leaped from it there is also a rope crossing the width of the swimming hole so people can relax in the water this is the locals favorite spot because not many out of "towners" know of its location which is for the better.

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