Flemington, officially gazetted as "Homebush West" since 1992, is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Flemington is located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Strathfield, with a small unpopulated area in Cumberland Council.
Much of the housing in the suburb is government housing. Only a small number of historical homes and newly built apartment blocks are under private ownership.
Suburb name
The suburb is commonly referred to as "Flemington", even in official contexts. The suburb is colloquially known in the local area as "Flemo" and residents known as "Flemos". "Flemington" was the old official name of the suburb, before the residential suburb (south of the railway) was merged into Strathfield in 1892. From 1892, the old Flemington was part of Strathfield. After the establishment of Sydney Markets (commonly known as Flemington Markets) in 1975, "Flemington" was gazetted as an official suburb in 1977. The modern suburb, under the name "Homebush West", was gazetted in 1992, and re-gazetted with modified boundaries in 1995. Subsequently, "Flemington" became officially an "urban place" confined to a small, unpopulated part of the suburb that is within Cumberland Council. The new official name "Homebush West" comes from the separate suburb of Homebush to the east. The new official suburb name is almost never used outside local administrative contexts: Sydney Markets remain known as the "Flemington" markets, the railway station and various organisations and businesses in the suburb still carry the name "Flemington", and most residents and some official sources still refer to the suburb as "Flemington".
History
The area was called Flemington by John Fleming, who was granted here in 1806.
A loosely defined area in the vicinity had earlier been called "Liberty Plains", because it was granted to the first free settlers "Liberty Plains" survives as the name of the Parish of Liberty Plains, a cadastral unit for land titles. Flemington is at the eastern extremity of the Parish of Liberty Plaints - neighbouring Homebush is in the Parish of Concord. The neighbouring suburb of Homebush is named after a nearby estate called "Home Bush", around today's Sydney Olympic Park, established in the 1800s by the colony's then assistant surgeon D'arcy Wentworth. According to local government historian Michael Jones, "Wentworth is popularly credited with having called the area after his 'home in the bush', although Homebush is also a place in Kent." Wentworth's estate did not include the village of "Homebush" south of the railway: the name came to the village indirectly, via Homebush railway station, built in 1855 and named after Wentworth's estate further to the north.
The part of the Fleming estate south of the railway was acquired by the Underwood Estate and subdivided in 1882, with streets laid out in a grid pattern that survives to this day. The streets in the grid are named after various locations in southern England, such as Richmond, Henley, Hampstead, Exeter, Tavistock and Eastbourne.
Flemington markets (Sydney Markets)
North of the railway, the bush was turned into paddocks and from 1883 was the site of a cattle saleyard, relocated from North Homebush, further east.
In 1892, Strathfield Municipality expanded west, taking in a large area incl
uding the part of Flemington south of the railway, after which homes in this part of the suburb became listed in directories under "Strathfield". The part of the suburb north of the railway was incorporated into the Municipality of Homebush (which also covered the part of modern-day Homebush north of the railway), which was eventually incorporated into Strathfield Municipality in 1947.
In the early 1970s, the Sydney Markets were built at Flemington on the site of the saleyards, to relieve the Paddy's Markets at Haymarket, in the city. The Sydney Markets at Flemington, built in 1975, became known as "Flemington Markets". Eventually, in 1992, the residential part of the suburb, south of the railway line, was officially renamed "Homebush West".
