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Kogarah, New South Wales

Encyclopedia : K : KO : KOG : Kogarah, New South Wales

 

The former Kogarah Post Office in 1915. The building still stands, but is now used as a town hall.
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The former Kogarah Post Office in 1915. The building still stands, but is now used as a town hall.

For the seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, see Electoral district of Kogarah.
Kogarah is a suburb in the Municipality of Kogarah, in southern Sydney, in the state New South Wales, Australia. It is located 12 km to the south of the Sydney central business district. It comes from the Aboriginal word for place of reeds and is the seat of the Municipality of Kogarah Local Government Area. Kogarah is also the centre of the St George area which encompasses most of southern Sydney until it becomes the Sutherland Shire (beginning at Sylvania).

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Geography and setting

Kogarah is surrounded by Rockdale to the north, Ramsgate to the south, Monterey to the east and Carlton to the west.

Kogarah usually refers to the suburb, but it is also the name of the municipality and council of the area surrounding the suburb. Suburbs within the Kogarah municipality include Sans Souci and Blakehurst.

More than anything else, Kogarah is mainly known for its large range of schools (including primary school, high school and tertiary education) and health care services (which includes two hospitals) as well as a large residential area. The NRL side, St George Illawarra Dragons have their Sydney office based at Kogarah's OKI Jubilee Oval.

Transportation

The entire Municipality of Kogarah and surrounding areas rely on bus, train and taxi services that operate from the centre of Kogarah's shopping district. Bus and train services are also maximised to accommodate the large population within Kogarah, as well as the large number of schools in the area. Areas around Kogarah, particularly those along the beach (Brighton-le-Sands, Monterey, Ramsgate Beach etc.) rely heavily on bus services as they are quite distant from rail stations. Until 1937, a steam tramway operated between Kogarah and Sans Souci via Rocky Point Road. This was replaced by an electric trolleybus service, one of only two such services to operate in Sydney. This was subsequently replaced in the 1950's with the current diesel government bus routes that currently operate. The majority of all public transportation in Kogarah depart and arrive from the Kogarah Town Centre.

Kogarah railway station is located on the Illawarra line of the CityRail network. The station is a larger complex, and is part of the building that houses the Kogarah Town Centre. In the late 1990s, the station underwent large renovations which, among other things, added easy access facilities such as elevators into the station and onto each of the 4 platforms.

Local culture

Kogarah Town Centre

The Kogarah Town Centre is arguably the main building of Kogarah. It houses Kogarah's only shopping centre, which includes a Post office, a larger supermarket (Woolworths) and the Kogarah railway station along with a multitude of specialty stores like butchers, delicatessens and chemists. The Town Centre also features one of Sydney's first Video Ezy stores as well as a food court and a tavern. While it is a shopping centre, it should be noted that the Town Centre is quite small and the majority of its traffic is from the railway station and Woolworths. There is also a new shopping area further towards Carlton, with small stores and features Kogarah's new Library and Cultural Centre.

St. George Dragons

One of Kogarah's claims to fame is that it is the part time home of the NRL's St George Illawarra Dragons who play Rugby League at Kogarah's Jubilee Oval, one of Sydney's first football fields. The Dragons are one of Sydney's oldest football teams and one of much tradition and history, famous for being the club of legends such as Reg Gasnier (see St George Illawarra Dragons).

The Annual Kogarah Bed Race and Street Fair

The most popular social event on the Kogarah calendar is the annual Kogarah Bed Race and Street Fair. In the race, teams race through Kogarah's main street, Railway Parade, on hospital beds, all in the name of charity. Most beds are driven by local businesses in teams that are usually made up of more than 4. The rules stipulate that one member of the team must be in a lying position on the bed. The beds are always decorated, usually with the colours or insignias of the business sponsoring the bed. The contestants usually dress up for the cause as well. All proceeds of the race go to the St George Hospital.

The street fair that happens just before the bed race is a great social affair with numerous stalls, food outlets and of course plenty of great entertainment.

Parks and beaches

The Kogarah area also sports many parks and reserves with no shortage of sports playing fields.

Brighton-Le-Sands

Possibly the most popular area for youth and night time entertainment is Brighton-le-Sands (also called just Brighton or Brighton Beach) as it features a large variety of restaurants serving many forms of multicultural cuisine as well as the luxurious Novotel right on the beach. Despite this, Brighton-le-Sands never achieved the recognition of other Sydney beach-side tourist destinations such as Bondi and Cronulla. Brighton is also known for having the largest portion of Sydney's Greek community and was the centre of celebrations after Greece won the Euro 2004 Soccer cup.

Significant people from Kogarah

List of schools in Kogarah

List of institutions in Kogarah

External links

Suburbs and localities within the Municipality of Kogarah | St George | Sydney
Allawah | Beverley Park | Blakehurst | Carlton | Carss Park | Connells Point | Hurstville Grove | Hurstville South | Kogarah | Kogarah Bay | Kyle Bay

List of Sydney suburbs

Suburbs and localities within the City of Rockdale | St George | Sydney
Arncliffe | Banksia | Bardwell Park | Bardwell Valley | Bexley | Bexley North | Brighton-Le-Sands | Dolls Point | Kingsgrove | Kogarah | Kyeemagh | Monterey | Ramsgate | Ramsgate Beach | Rockdale | Sandringham | Sans Souci | Sydney International Airport | Turrella | Wolli Creek

List of Sydney suburbs

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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