Sylvania, New South Wales

Sylvania Sylvania is a suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 22km south of the Sydney central business district in the [[Sutherland Shire]. The postcode is 2224.

Sylvania is on Horse Rock Point where the Tom Uglys Bridge crosses north over the Georges River to Blakehurst, in the St George area.

Sylvania is mostly residential but also contains some commercial developments on the Princes Highway and Port Hacking Road. Sylvania Heights is a locality in the western part of the suburb, but Sylvania Waters to the east is a separate suburb.

Southgate shopping centre is located on the corner of the Princes Highway and Port Hacking Road. It contains two supermarkets, a discount variety store, specialty shops, a bowling alley, a gymnasium, fast food restaurants and a pub. A strip of shops and restaurants is located near the foot of Tom Uglys Bridge. Another strip of shops is located in Sylvania Heights.

History

The naming of the suburb is unclear, but ‘sylvan’ which means inhabiting the woods, relates to the setting of this suburb. The existence of a Sylvan Street, off Princes Highway, seems to confirm this. Thomas Holt (1811-88) owned the land that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla. Holt had built Sutherland House on the foreshore of Gwawley Bay in 1818, on the eastern side of Sylvania. He established the Sutherland Estate Company in 1881 and a village grew here, with a post office opening in 1883. The school opened in 1884 but closed in 1891 and was not reopened until 1925. Sylvania Heights Public School opened in 1955.

Much of the land of Sylvania Waters was reclaimed from Gwawley Bay. Sylvania Waters Estate was developed by L.J.Hooker in the 1960s and land offered had water frontages with boating facilities. Streets were named after Australian rivers to emphasise the association with water, such as Shoalhaven, Tweed, Murrumbidgee, Hawkesbury and Barwon.