In the 1830s, an inn built by George Faulkener, close to the corner of Liverpool Road, was called the Punch and Bowl.

When a railway station opened on this road in 1909, three kilometres (1.9 mi) away from the 'punch bowl' itself, the surrounding suburb came to be known as Punchbowl.

[3] In the 1920s and 1930s, Punchbowl was a higher-class suburb, with a number of popular theatres that were closed down or demolished thirty years later.

Operated by Enterprise Theatres Ltd, the Regent opened on Saturday 24 May 1923, showing The White Rose.

It thrived until the advent of Roselands Shopping Centre and Bankstown Square in the late 1960s and its bisection by the upgrading of Punchbowl Road in the 1970s.

Lebanese cuisine is well regarded in the suburb, to the extent that culinary walking tours of Punchbowl sell out months ahead.

Punchbowl railway station is located on the Bankstown line of the Sydney Trains network.

The new bridge greatly aided traffic flow through the area but at the cost of effectively cutting the shopping centre in half.

Parts of Punchbowl have been redeveloped since the turn of the 21st century, with flats, townhouses and modern detached houses built.

45.0% of people were born in Australia; The next most common other countries of birth were Lebanon 12.3%, Vietnam 5.4%, Bangladesh 3.0%, China 2.8% and Pakistan 2.7%.