Cumberland County, New South Wales

Cumberland New South Wales
Location in New South Wales
Established:	4 June 1788
Cadastral units around Cumberland Hunter Northumberland Northumberland Cook Cumberland Pacific Ocean Camden Camden Pacific Ocean

Cumberland County is a county in the State of New South Wales, Australia. Most of the Sydney metropolitan area is located within the County of Cumberland.

The County of Cumberland stretches from Broken Bay to the north, the Hawkesbury River to the north-west, the Nepean River to the west, the Cataract River to the south-west and the northern suburbs of Wollongong to the south. It includes the area of the Cumberland Plain.

History

The name Cumberland was conferred by Governor Phillip in honour of Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, later King of Hanover, at a gathering to celebrate the birthday of his father, King George III, on 4 June 1788. The county has been marked on maps since the start of the colony, as shown along the key on a 1789 map describing Port Jackson as being within the county of Cumberland. In the nineteenth century, parts of the county were in the South and North Riding electoral districts from 1856 to 1859, which were replaced by Central Cumberland. There was also the Cumberland Boroughs electoral district.

Use

New South Wales is divided up into 141 counties, for the purposes of surveying and the registration of land titles. Few Australian counties have ever had any government or administrative function. However, the County of Cumberland did have a county government, the Cumberland County Council, from 1945 to 1964. Its responsibilities were primarily limited to town planning on the metropolitan scale. The Cumberland County Council was not elected by the people, but rather was elected by councillors of the various local governments within the County. In 1951 the Council ratified the Cumberland County Council Planning Scheme which boldly reformed town planning throughout metropolitan Sydney. Though not all of the plan was implemented, much of it was, radically altering the urban form of Sydney and its suburbs.

The objectives of the County Council were often in conflict with the aims of many State Government departments. For instance, the County Council's plans called for a green belt to encircle metropolitan Sydney, while the NSW Housing Commission wished to use much of this land to build new low-density public housing estates in areas such as Blacktown and Liverpool. As a result, the Cumberland County Council was dissolved in 1964.

Its metropolitan planning functions were taken over by a new body, the State Planning Authority, which has since been superseded by a succession of state government departments. As of 2008 this government department is the New South Wales Department of Planning.

Hundreds

Map of Cumberland County in 1840, showing 13 hundreds and 53 parishes. The four smaller parishes in Sydney city are not displayed.

There were thirteen hundreds in Cumberland County, which were published in a government gazette on 27 May 1835, but repealed on 21 January 1888. Unlike South Australia, the hundreds were never adopted anywhere else in New South Wales. The hundreds:

• Bringelly
• Campbelltown
• Dundas
• Evan
• Hardinge
• Liverpool
• Packenham
• Parramatta
• Richmond
• Southend
• Hundred of Sydney
• Windsor
• Woronora (shown as Heathcote on some maps)

Parishes

Parishes of Cumberland County

In 1835, Cumberland County was subdivided into 57 parishes. Previously, the subdivisions of the area since the beginning of the colony were called districts. Many of the parishes founded in 1835 kept the name of the district. Others were named after Anglican churches in the same area. This included three of the four small parishes in the Sydney city area; St Philip (named after St.Philip's), St James (named after St. James, and which is still the region name today), St Andrew (named after St. Andrew's). However St Lawrence parish gave its name to the church, rather than the other way around. Further out of the city, the parishes of St John, St Luke, St Peter and St Matthew, in the Parramatta, Liverpool, Campbelltown and Windsor areas respectively, have Anglican churches which bear the same saints names; St John's in Parramatta (opened 1803); St.Luke's in Liverpool (building began 1818); St.Peter's in Campbelltown (opened 1823, the third oldest Anglican church in Australia); and St. Matthew's in Windsor (consecrated in 1822)

A full list of parishes found within this county; the LGA which the parish is mostly in (some are part of several LGAs), and mapping coordinates to the approximate centre of each location is as follows:

Parish	LGA	Hundred (former)	Coordinates
Alexandria	Municipality of Woollahra	Sydney	33°50′54″S 151°17′04″E
Appin	Wollondilly Shire	Campbelltown	34°11′54″S 150°45′04″E
Bankstown	City of Bankstown	Liverpool	33°55′54″S 150°59′04″E
Berowra	Hornsby Shire	Dundas	33°33′54″S 151°05′04″E
Botany	City of Botany Bay	Sydney	33°56′54″S 151°14′04″E
Bringelly	City of Penrith	Bringelly	33°53′54″S 150°41′04″E
Broken Bay	Warringah Council	Packenham	33°38′54″S 151°13′04″E
Bulgo	City of Wollongong	Heathcote	34°09′54″S 151°03′04″E
Cabramatta	City of Liverpool	Bringelly	33°54′54″S 150°49′04″E
Castle Hill	Baulkham Hills Shire	Parramatta	33°44′54″S 150°41′04″E
Castlereagh	City of Penrith	Richmond	33°40′54″S 150°42′04″E
Claremont	City of Penrith	Evan	33°48′54″S 150°43′04″E
Concord	City of Canada Bay	Sydney	33°51′54″S 151°06′04″E
Cook	Camden Council	Bringelly	33°57′54″S 150°42′04″E
Cornelia	Baulkham Hills Shire	Hardinge	32°59′54″S 150°00′04″E
Cowan	Hornsby Shire	Dundas	33°36′54″S 151°08′04″E
Eckersley	City of Campbelltown	Southend	34°04′54″S 150°55′04″E
Field of Mars	City of Parramatta	Parramatta	33°46′54″S 151°03′04″E
Frederick	Hornsby Shire	Hardinge	33°27′54″S 151°02′34″E
Gidley	City of Blacktown	Windsor	33°40′54″S 150°52′04″E
Gordon	Ku-ring-gai Council	Packenham	33°12′54″S 151°09′04″E
Ham Common	City of Hawkesbury	Richmond	33°35′54″S 150°45′04″E
Heathcote	Sutherland Shire	Heathcote	34°05′54″S 150°59′04″E
Holsworthy	City of Liverpool	Liverpool	33°56′54″S 150°57′04″E
Hunters Hill	City of Ryde	Parramatta	33°47′54″S 151°06′04″E
Liberty Plains	Strathfield Municipality	Parramatta	33°51′54″S 151°02′04″E
Londonderry	City of Penrith	Richmond	33°40′54″S 150°45′04″E
Manly Cove	Warringah Council	Packenham	33°46′54″S 151°16′04″E
Maroota	Baulkham Hills Shire	Hardinge	33°29′54″S 151°00′04″E
Marramarra	Hornsby Shire	Dundas	33°29′54″S 151°17′04″E
Melville	City of Fairfield	Evan	33°51′16″S 150°49′20″E
Menangle	City of Campbelltown	Campbelltown	34°06′54″S 150°47′04″E
Minto	City of Liverpool	Liverpool	33°57′54″S 150°51′04″E
Mulgoa	City of Penrith	Evan	33°48′54″S 150°40′04″E
Narellan	Camden Council	Campbelltown	34°02′54″S 150°44′04″E
Narrabeen	Pittwater Council	Packenham	33°36′54″S 151°20′04″E
Nelson	Baulkham Hills Shire	Windsor	33°36′54″S 150°57′04″E
North Colah	Hornsby Shire	Dundas	33°37′54″S 151°03′04″E
Petersham	Municipality of Leichhardt	Sydney	33°51′54″S 151°10′04″E
Pitt Town	City of Hawkesbury	Windsor	33°35′54″S 150°53′04″E
Prospect	City of Blacktown	Parramatta	33°46′54″S 150°55′04″E
Rooty Hill	City of Penrith	Richmond	33°43′54″S 150°48′04″E
South Colah	Hornsby Shire	Dundas	33°41′54″S 151°05′04″E
Southend	City of Wollongong	Southend	34°16′54″S 150°55′04″E
St Andrew	City of Sydney	Sydney	33°52′26″S 151°12′23″E
St George	Canterbury	Sydney	33°56′54″S 151°06′04″E
St James	City of Sydney	Sydney	33°52′10″S 151°12′39″E
St John	City of Parramatta	Parramatta	33°49′54″S 151°03′04″E
St Lawrence	City of Sydney	Sydney	33°52′53″S 151°12′18″E
St Luke	City of Fairfield	Liverpool	33°51′54″S 150°54′04″E
St Matthew	City of Hawkesbury	Windsor	33°37′54″S 150°49′04″E
St Peter	City of Campbelltown	Campbelltown	34°03′54″S 150°50′04″E
St Philip	City of Sydney	Sydney	33°51′51″S 151°12′22″E
Sutherland	Sutherland Shire	Heathcote	34°01′54″S 151°05′04″E
Wattamolla	Sutherland Shire	Heathcote	34°05′49″S 151°06′27″E
Wedderburn	Wollondilly Shire	Southend	34°14′54″S 150°50′04″E
Willoughby	Municipality of Mosman	Packenham	33°49′54″S 151°15′04″E

Districts

Districts on an 1824 map

The first subdivisions of the county were called districts, shown in early maps from the period, such as 21 districts on an 1810 map and 37 districts on an 1824 map (not including Philip which was across the Nepean River and not part of the county). The districts in use in 1824:

• Airds
• Appin
• Bankstown
• Bathurst
• Botany Bay
• Bringelly
• Bullanaming
• Cambramatta
• Castle Hill
• Castlereagh
• Concord
• Cooke
• Dundas
• Eastern Plains
• Evan District
• Fields of Mars
• Green Hills
• Holsworth
• Hunter's Hill
• Illawarra
• Liberty Plains
• Mecham
• Melville
• Meyrick
• Minto
• Nelson
• Northern Boundary
• Oxley
• Parramatta
• Petersham
• Ponds
• Prospect
• Richmond
• Sydney
• Tongabee
• Upper Minto
• Upper Nelson

References

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