Prospect is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Prospect is located 32 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
The suburb of Prospect takes its name from the prominent nearby landmark of Prospect Hill - from the top of which people could get a prospect of (see a great distance) the surrounding countryside. Initially a settlement for emancipated convicts, it later became a village.
Since colonisation, settlers cleared larger areas of land to raise livestock, build churches, inns, schools, shops and a large reservoir. The quarrying of blue metal was abundant in the area. Naturalist Charles Darwin visited Prospect in January 1836, to observe the geology.
History
Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Prospect was inhabited by different groups of the Darug people including the Warmuli. The Aboriginals there were of the woods culture. As European settlement expanded, the aboriginal people's ability to pursue their traditional lifestyle, which was already severely limited, disappeared. Prospect Hill had been the frontier, which was the first, and perhaps, only area where large scale organised resistance by aboriginal people took place.
Lieutenant Watkin Tench most likely named Prospect Hill in April 1790. In July 1791, thirteen grants of land at Prospect were made to emancipated convicts. In January 1794 David Collins reported that the Prospect Hill farmers were the most productive in the colony.
Prospect became the boundary between colonists and indigenous Australians. Hostility grew until by 1797, where a state of guerrilla warfare existed between indigenous people and the settler communities at Prospect and Parramatta. The aboriginal people were led by their leader, Pemulwuy, a member of the Bidjigal tribe who occupied the land. Pemulwuy was the main leader of raids against the colony in the 1790s. In 1797 the war escalated; his guerrillas started regular raids on settlements in the Parramatta and Prospect Hill areas. British military expeditions failed to locate and capture Pemulwuy.
Shortly after 1808, William Lawson was appointed aide-de-camp to George Johnston, was granted 500 acres at Prospect and built a large house there, which he named Veteran Hall. In the 1880s most of the property was submerged in what is now Prospect reservoir.
On 30 January 2004 the eastern part of Prospect became a new suburb called Pemulwuy containing the new housing estates of Lakeside and Nelson's Ridge and the industrial area within the oval-shaped ridge of Prospect Hill. So most of Prospect Hill is no longer within the suburb of Prospect.
Prospect Quarry
Quarrying companies gradually took over more and more of Prospect Hill, mining the dolerite for use as roadstone until it was almost all gone and much of the hill with it. The Prospect quarry is formed by an intrusion of dolerite rock into Ashfield Shale. At least seven different rock types occur in the intrusion. The material is predominantly coarse grained picrite with olivine-dolerite and dolerite. Roads were paved with grey dolerite from Prospect Hill as early as the 1820s. By the end of World War II, the quarries closed down except for two that had the best class of basalt. There are have been plans to close down the quarry and turn the 330ha site into half light industrial, half housing and open space.
Geography
Philip Gidley King mentions that the landscape of Prospect is "a very pleasant tract of country, which, from the distance the trees grew from each other, and the gentle hills and dales, and rising slopes covered with grass, appeared like a vast park. The soil from Rose Hill to Prospect-Hill is nearly alike, being a loam and clay." The tree cover was mainly the eucalypts, grey box and forest red gum. Spotted gum (Corymbia maculata) is also known to have occurred in the Prospect area.
Climate
Prospect has a warm temperate climate. Summer weather is warm to hot, and may be humid or dry. Although a fair amount of rain is spread throughout the year, late winter and early spring are fairly dry, whilst late summer through to early winter are relatively wet.
Prospect is usually a few degrees warmer than the Sydney CBD on most spring and summer days. In a few cases there has been a +10 degree differential on 30 June 2010.
Landmarks
Prospect is adjacent to the Great Western Highway and the M4 Motorway, providing road access to the western sections of the city and eastward to the Sydney CBD.
Prospect Highway links Prospect to central Blacktown.
Blacktown railway station provides access to the Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink networks, especially Sydney Trains' North Shore, Northern & Western Line. Several bus companies offer connecting services between Prospect and Blacktown, via Blacktown Road.
Demographics
According to the 2011 census, the most common ancestries in Prospect were Australian 20.0%, English 16.1%, Maltese 6.2%, Irish 5.0% and Indian 4.6%.
62.0% of people were born in Australia. The other most common countries of birth were Fiji 3.0%, Philippines 2.8%, India 2.5%, Malta 2.3% and England 1.9%. 35.3% of people had both parents born in Australia and 53.1% of people had both parents born overseas.
61.4% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 4.7%, Hindi 4.1%, Greek 2.9%, Maltese 2.5% and Cantonese 1.8%.
The most common responses for religion in Prospect were Catholic 38.4%, Anglican 12.0%, No Religion 10.2%, Eastern Orthodox 5.7% and Hinduism 5.6%.
Notable residents
Notable people who have resided in the suburb include: