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Darlington is a small, inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 3 kms south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. It is also informally part of the region of the Inner West. The postcode is 2008.

Although Darlington is small, it can be split into a number of sub-suburban divisions including Golden Grove. The western half of the suburb is a campus of the University of Sydney, the eastern half is an area largely populated by students from the university because housing is relatively cheap. Darlington is bordered by City Road to the west, Cleveland Street to the north, Abercrombie Street to the east, the railway yards to the south, and Golden Grove Street to the south-west.

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Most of Darlington is built on the terrace house model. This means that undetached, two storey terraces face one another across a small street, often crowded with parked cars. Behind these houses is usually back lane, of one-car width, or a pedestrian access lane. These lanes were colloquially known as dunny lanes because they were originally used to provide access for sani-men or human waste collectors, to the bucket style toilets located in sheds at the fence-line of the backyard. With the introduction of sewerage to Darlington, the backyard dunnies generally became sheds, and the lanes became defunct. Back lanes are now generally used for storing garbage bins, dumping general refuse and occasionally access to properties from the rear. The street-lane system affords raked varigated views on both sides, with both sides heavily cultivated by Darlington's keen and individualistic gardeners. See the pictures for examples of a typical street view and a typical back lane view.

Landmarks

Darlington was historically a suburb of the industrial working class. It has often been used as a student dormitory suburb due to its proximity to the University of Sydney's Camperdown campus. Controversially, the University of Sydney acquired a large number of houses in Darlington in the 1980s and destroyed a significant portion of the suburb to make way for a new Darlington campus. This destroyed much of the historical character of the suburb, and the remains are dominated by the University and University related housing. The only part of the civic centre that remains is the Old Darlington School, which is on the grounds of the University and is used these days by the Music Department, especially the gamelan group. All the records held by the old Darlington municipal council were lost at some point, which makes it difficult to do research on what houses in the area used to look like.

Other landmarks include the Eveleigh Railway Yards, which are now defunct. They are located off Wilson Street and are part of the adjacent suburb of Eveleigh. On the north-east border is The Block, a housing area around Eveleigh Street, owned by the Aboriginal community. The Block is an enclave of Redfern, on the Darlington side of the railway line.

Transport

Darlington is serviced by buses on the City Road route and CityRail railway stations at Redfern and Macdonaldtown.

History

Darlington was first settled by William Shepherd, a botanist, who was offered 200 acres here in 1827. He refused the grant because he wanted to live closer to town and was given land to the north-east. In 1835, he held about 28 acres here where he cultivated a nursery garden. He named it Darling Nursery, in honour of Governor Ralph Darling. The suburb became known as Darlingtown, which gradually was corrupted to Darlington. Street names such as Ivy, Vine, Rose, Pine and Myrtle recall the nursery origins.

Notable Residents

• Alfred Shout VC

References

• The Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollen, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia ISBN 0-207-14495-8

External links

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• Suburbs of Sydney