Featherdale Wildlife Park and the Nurragingy Nature Reserve are popular local tourist attractions.
In 1822 part of the Government stock run was granted by Governor Thomas Brisbane to Scottish immigrant, Robert Crawford.
In 1826 John Crawford purchased land adjacent Hill End fronting Richmond Road which he named Doonside.
[2] Bungarribee House In 1822 the area south of Hill End (Doonside) was granted to a Scottish-born settler named John Campbell (1771–1827).
[3] The property and house had a series of owners and tenants in the 19th and 20th centuries until acquired by the Commonwealth Overseas Telecommunications Commission (O.T.C.)
During World War II, the station was one part of a much larger scheme to increase the tracks to four main lines between Lidcombe and St. Mary's to provide maximum track capacity to the American ammunition and general store built at Ropes Creek.
A signal box was incorporated into the 1955 building but closed in 1963 when automatic boom gates were provided at an adjacent level crossing, which was removed in 1980.
[5] At the time of World War I Prior to 1916, the only development at Doonside was confined to the Crawford family.
The Crawford homestead and acreage block was on the south side of the railway line facing Doonside Road.
North of the line on the corner of Hillend Road and Doonside Crescent, was a brick cottage owned by the Italian family, Luparno.
Another cottage in Hillend Road was owned by the family named Harrison, in-laws to Crawford children.
Power Street went to Plumpton with the crossing over Eastern Creek being rough and dangerous in wet weather.
After the war (1914–1918), the company of Porter and Galbraith bought property from Crawford and erected a tileworks (PGH) in an area which is now the suburb of Woodcroft.
A soldier's settlement of about twenty poultry farms was established between the railway line and Bungarribee Road.
A store and post office were opened unofficially in 1926 by Bill Francis on the corner of Hillend Road and Cross Street.
For some years his nephew Jack Francis operated the post office on the other side of the railway line but once it was made official it returned to its original site until 1987.
Suburb development In 1912, twelve hundred acres of the Bungarribee estate were carved into eight to twenty-acre lots.
There was a mix of housing tenures in the suburb with 21.6% of properties owned outright, 30.6% being purchased and 43.6% being rented.
Other languages spoken at home included Tagalog 6.6%, Arabic 4.0%, Hindi 3.7%, Punjabi 3.2% and Filipino 3.0%.
The government Architect prepared plans and invited tenders (quote) for building the school.
The numbers continued to grow due to the development of the area as new estates and housing were established.
[10] Safety is a large concern for residents of Doonside; statistics from the Blacktown City Council show that only 28% of residents in Doonside feel safe walking down their own street, with crime and community safety being ranked as the biggest challenges faced by locals.
It was established a nature reserve in 1981 and named after Nurragingy, a Darug man given a land grant in the Blacktown area in 1819.
[14][15][16] Just south of the railway line is the Featherdale Wildlife Park, a private zoo established in 1953 and specialising in Australian native animals and birds.
The Colours of maroon and white and an embolem of a leaping Kangaroo were choosing to represent the club.
Games were played on Bert Sanders Reserve near Feathedale Wildlife Park one year due to the amenities at Kareela being destroyed in a fire.