Newtown, Australia

Newtown is a suburb of Sydney, Australia, 4 km south-west of the CBD. Originally a blue-collar area, it's proximity to the main Camperdown campus of Sydney University has gained it a reputation as a bohemian center, with a strong student, gay and lesbian population, although it has become somewhat yuppiefied of late.

The main strip of Newtown is along King Street, which is sometimes referred to as "eat-street" in the press due to its large number of cafes, pubs and resturants. Newtown is serviced by a railway station.

Newtown was established as a residential and farming area in the early 19th century. It gets its name from a grocery store opened there by John and Eliza Webster in 1832, at a site close to where the Newtown railway station stands today. They placed a sign on top of their store that read "New Town Stores". Passers by took this to mean that the area was called New Town and the name caught on, with the space gradually disappearing over the years to form the name Newtown. A bid in the late 19th century to rename the area South Sydney failed.

External Links

• The Newtown Project, historical documents from Newtown (http://www.sydneyarchives.info/)