Doonside, New South Wales

Doonside Sydney, New South Wales
Nurragingy Nature Reserve
Population	13,087 (2011 census)
Established	1929
Postcode(s)	2767
Location	40 km (25 mi) west of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	City of Blacktown
State electorate(s)	Blacktown
Federal Division(s)	Chifley
Suburbs around Doonside: Glendenning Quakers Hill Woodcroft Rooty Hill Doonside Blacktown Eastern Creek Huntingwood Arndell Park

Doonside is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Doonside is located 40 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Nurragingy Nature Reserve are popular tourist attractions in Doonside. Doonside is now colloquially known as 'Doony, Doonie' for short.

The Original Land Owners

The Duruk people were once the owners of local land. The area now known as Doonside was named 'Bungarribee' (Bung meaning the 'creek' and garribee meaning 'cockatoo').

In 1802, Governor Philip Gidley King reserved a large proportion of Duruk land for a Government Stock Reserve. The next twenty years saw Doonside as grazing land for cattle and sheep owned by convict herdsmen. In 1823 Aboriginal owned land was granted by Governor Thomas Brisbane to Scottish immigrant, Robert Crawford. Robert named his 2,000 acre (8 km²) grant 'Doonside' after his family home in Scotland, which was known as the River Doon. The grant was also known as Hill-end but later the area became known as Crawford, before officially becoming Doonside.

In 1823, Robert James Crawford (1799-1848) Robert had four children with Mary Campbell (d. 1832): Mary Crawford (b. 1826), Robert Crawford (1827-1906), George Canning Crawford (b. 1828), and Agnes C. Crawford (b. 1831). (Robert Crawford's four children's names are used today at Crawford Public School as sporting house teams). The elder Robert Crawford married Miss Jones of Bligh Street, Sydney, in 1832.

Robert Crawford (1827-1906) married Victoria Margaret Smyth in 1868. Their son, Robert (1868-1930), born in the same year became a published poet.

Bungarribee House

In 1824 the Southern area of Doonside was granted to a Scottish-born settler named John Campbell (1771-1827). Campbell began to erect a homestead on the property which he ran as a convict farm to help feed the growing colony of New South Wales. The house was not quite finished at the time of Campbell's death in October 1827 and was completed and extended by Thomas Icely following his purchase of the property in 1828.