It is 35 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool.

Following British settlement of the area in the 1800s, it was given the colloquial name Hillview as the suburb had nice views of the surrounding Liverpool area, and this name persisted until after World War I when the land was converted into a soldier settlement which provided the soldiers with enough room for a house and a small farm.

It also has relatively easy access to the M5 South Western Motorway to the city and the Westlink M7 to the northwest of Sydney.

[4] There are three schools situated in the suburb: Lurnea's population at the 2021 Australian census was 10,057, with 49.4% of people being born in Australia.

In Lurnea, Christianity was the largest religious group reported overall (40.3%) (this figure excludes not stated responses).