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West Pennant Hills is a suburb of Sydney, Australia 24km northwest of the central business district. It is largely a residential suburb, and has seen a great deal of development in recent years. Tourist attractions include Cumberland State Forest and the popular Koala Park. The major business district is Thompson's Corner, also the site of the suburb's government primary school, West Pennant Hills Public School. Although the nearest train stations, Beecroft and Pennant Hills, are some distance away, the suburb is well serviced by buses. Neighboring suburbs include Cherrybrook, Pennant Hills, Beecroft, North Rocks, and Castle Hill. Originally part of Pennant Hills, upon creation of the train line in the far east of the suburb, the area was halved with the original "hub" of the suburb being changed to "West" Pennant Hills.
History At a time when the combined population of Field of Mars Common and Castle Hill numbered less than 3,000 people, Henry Parkes approved in 1850, on behalf of the Board of National Education in New South Wales , the appointment of local patrons for the commencement of Pennant Hills Public School . Botany, Fort Street , Smithfield and Pennant Hills were the first metropolitan schools under the control of the newly constituted Board. When Sydney was first established, ‘Pennant Hills’, applied to the range of hills stretching north from Parramatta . The school first opened under the name of Pennant Hills Public School when the township of Pennant Hills was later centred on the ridge at the intersection of Pennant Hills and Castle Hill Roads, which was a trading point on the way north. The school name changed to include ‘West’ in 1925 when a new school was built closer to the railway line and was to be known as ‘Pennant Hills East’ and our original school, ‘Pennant Hills West’. West Pennant Hills includes Thompson's Corner, named after Andrew Thompson (1773-1810), a convict (see Scotland Island), who received a grant of 100 acres in 1796 opposite the signal station in Pennant Hills. Workmen on the railway from Strathfield to Homsby established a camp and stores depot there in about 1890. During Lachlan Macquarie's governorship (1810-21), a timbersawing establishment stood near today's Thompson's Corner. In those early days the pit-sawyers roamed the countryside, and the saw pits were set up at various places close to forest areas. In the early 1990s, one of the last mills was demolished, having stood at the bottom of Hill Road. | ||||||||
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