Padstow History
The first land grant in the modern day Milperra area was made to William Heath in 1799. This was in the north western part of Milperra – east along Henry Lawson Drive and up to and including the Vale of Ah. This was settled as early as the 1850s and was originally referred to as Heathfield, then later Thorn’s Bush after the family who owned this from the 1870s. Two families were settled here in 1891 and during the Boer War horses were trained on the land.
There was some more interest in the Milperra land during the 1890s when the railway line was extended from Sydenham to Belmore (1895) then to Bankstown (1909). The area was seen as the furthest from Bankstown and not much settlement took place prior to the Great War in 1914. However, when soldiers returned from the war, a number of Soldier Settlements were built – one of these being at Milperra in 1917. This was largely on the land grant made in 1819 to George Johnston Junior. The soldiers were sold small parcels of land from 5 to 10 acres and were set up as poultry farms (56) and vegetable gardens (48). The main problem was very few of the soldiers had ever been trained in these aspects of farming and within three years many of the soldiers had left their land.
The settlers in Milperra were isolated with the railway being a long distance away, and even when the railway was extended to East Hills in 1931, the lands south of Milperra in the vicinity of today’s Kelso Park became boggy swamps and could not be passed. Milperra remained part of a green belt area after World War 2 right up until the early 1960s. In the following ten years most of Milperra’s residential settlement took place, the more recent being on the western side of Henry Lawson Drive. With the M5 connecting Milperra to the city and airport it is now a modern looking suburb that’s not nearly as far away as thought 100 years or so ago.
Milperra Today
The size of Milperra is approximately 5 square kilometres. It has 11 parks covering nearly 34% of the total area. The population of Milperra in 2006 was 3,877, and the predominant age group in Milperra is 50-59 years. Households in Milperra are primarily couples with children and are likely to be repaying between $1200 – $1400 per month on mortgage repayments. In 2006, 87.7% of the homes in Milperra were owner-occupied compared, and the current median sales price of houses in the area is $525,000.
The popular feature of Milperra is its quiet location, and newer, more modern homes. Milperra also boasts some lovely waterfront homes along the Georges River, as well as great primary schools, local churches, a golf course and driving range, tennis courts, several great sport playing fields, and a sandy beach called Kelso Beach which locals use when boating, just up from the Milperra Deepwater Motor Boat Club. There are two shopping centres – Amiens Avenue, offering a butcher, fruit market, bakery, grocer/mini supermarket, hairdresser, dental surgery, a bottle shop and an Asian restaurant. The Ashford Avenue shopping centre boasts a Post Office, a TAB, a mixed business, newsagent, pharmacy, bakery, gourmet food shop, chicken shop, bottle shop, physiotherapist, hairdresser and beauty therapist.
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Or if you would like to know more about the Milperra area, please ask us about the ‘History of Milperra’ books by Andrew Molloy, exclusively sold in our office of Chambers Fleming Professionals Real Estate, here on the corner of Faraday and Howard Roads, Padstow.
Deepwater Park Milperra
