When he sold that land to a development company, the manager used the name Waitara for the subdivision project.

McCrae later bought land near Hornsby and when the railway station opened in 1895 he suggested the name Waitara, which was formally adopted.

The 2021 census community profile for Waitara revealed roughly equal proportions of men (48.4%) and women (51.6%) in a total population of 7,837.

31.4% of people were born in Australia, the next most common countries of birth were India 16.2%, China 14.7%, South Korea 3.6%, Philippines, 3.5% and Iran 3.4%.

Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 15.5%, Hindi 7.0%, Cantonese 6.2%, and Persian (excluding Dari) 3.8%.