Eastwood is a suburb of Sydney, Australia. Eastwood is located 17 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of the City of Ryde and the City of Parramatta. Eastwood is in the Western Sydney region (although it is commonly regarded as a suburb of Northern Sydney due to it being partially in the City of Parramatta). The area is best known for being an ethnic enclave for immigrant populations in Sydney, mainly of East Asian origin but the suburb also has a significant number of other immigrant populations. Eastwood was originally its own town but due to the expansion of Sydney, was eventually absorbed.
Originally thought to have been inhabited by the Wallumedegal people, who lived in the area between the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, the area was first settled by Europeans shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, from land grants to Royal Marines and New South Wales Corps, and was named “Eastwood” by an early Irish free settler, William Rutledge. Today it is a large suburban centre in the north of Sydney of over 17,000 people, with a large shopping area. Eastwood has a large population of Asian descent with immigrants from China and South Korea transforming the commercial precinct in the past decade.
Eastwood is famous for the Granny Smith apple, accidentally first grown in the suburb by Maria Ann Smith. Every October, the oval and cordoned-off streets become the grounds for the annual Granny Smith Festival, a celebration of the icon with fairground rides, market stalls, street theatres, parades, an apple-baking competition and a fireworks spectacular at the Upper Eastwood Oval. In recent years the festival has been influenced by the substantial Asian immigrant communities, with Chinese dragon dancers in the Grand Parade and Chinese stallholders. During the same period, Eastwood’s annual Chinese New Year Celebrations have broadened their appeal by incorporating concurrent Korean New Year traditions, and have accordingly been renamed the Lunar New Year Festivities.
