The Municipality of Ashfield is one of the most culturally diverse Municipalities in Australia with 51% of the population born overseas.
It has a population of 39,494 and is 8.29 square kilometres in size, and includes Ashfield, Summer Hill, Haberfield, the eastern part of Croydon and the fringes of Croydon Park, Hurlstone Park and Ashbury.
Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson in 1788, the area of land we now know as the Municipality of Ashfield was the home of the Wangal people. From 1794 onwards Europeans settled the area.
The first man to officially make his home in the Ashfield district was Baron Augustus Alt, the colony's first Surveyor-General. In 1794, the year of his grant, a number of farms covered the Ashfield area already and had considerable value.
With the arrival of the railway in 1855, Ashfield soon ceased to be a village. It grew from 70 houses and 200 people in 1855, to 200 dwellings and approximately 1, 000 residents by 1866.
Ashfield was proclaimed a Municipality under the name and style of the "Burough of Ashfield" on Friday 29 December 1871. The first Council Meeting was held on February 15 1872.
This article is copyrighted by Ashfield New South Wales Australia
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