Hurstville

Hurstville Sydney, New South Wales
Hurstville library
Population	26,040 (2011 census)
• Density	6,200/km2 (16,060/sq mi)
Established	1887
Postcode(s)	2220
Area	4.2 km2 (1.6 sq mi)
Location	16 km (10 mi) south of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	Georges River Council
State electorate(s)	Kogarah Oatley
Federal Division(s)	Banks Barton
Suburbs around Hurstville: Beverly Hills Kingsgrove Bexley Penshurst Hurstville Carlton Hurstville Grove South Hurstville Allawah

Hurstville is a suburb in southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south of the Sydney Central Business District and is part of the St George area. Hurstville is the administrative centre of the local government area of the Georges River Council.

Hurstville has become a central business district for the southern suburbs of Sydney. It is a large, multiethnic suburb with a multitude of commercial buildings and high-rise residential buildings dominating the skyline. Hurstville's residential developments are a mixture of low-density housing, medium-density flats, and high-density apartment buildings. As a commercial centre, it features branches of many retail shops as well as numerous banks and other financial institutions.

The name Hurstville is derived from the English '', meaning 'a wooded eminence', and '', meaning 'town'.

Although it is unknown when they first settled in the Hurstville area, the first inhabitants were Indigenous Australians. At the time of the arrival of the First Fleet, the Indigenous Australians residing in the area were of the Eora tribe, whose numbers spanned along the Georges River, from Botany Bay to present-day Liverpool.

The first sustained contact between members of the First Fleet and the Eora tribe, occurred on 20 January 1788 within the boundaries of the present City of Hurstville at Lugarno and Oatley, at Lime Kiln Bay on the Georges River, as recorded by Lieutenant Philip Gidley King in his diary. While Governor Philip explored the south side of the Georges River around Como, King with a party of one other officer and three marines in a six-oared rowboat aimed for the highest point they could see on the north side, probably at Lugarno, and landed at a place they named Lance Point. Although first contact with the Indigenous Australians led to a small altercation where a spear was thrown and a shot fired, later in the day when the party rowed up Lime Kiln Bay towards present day Mortdale they were greeted in a friendly manner by both men and women, and what could only be described as Australia's first picnic took place as food and drink were shared between the two peoples. After a long summer afternoon of mutual contact and conviviality the British sailors rowed back to their ship moored at Botany Bay (see Haworth R.J. 2012, Journal of Australian Colonial History, vol. 14 pp. 1–28, for a reconstruction of King's boat journey and likely route).