Neighbours

ANSTO's direct neighbourhood is represented in the state government as the electorate of Menai, and the federal government representative is the member for Hughes.

The local government area is The Sutherland Shire, with an administrative centre in the suburb of Sutherland. The Sutherland Shire is also known to Sydney simply as "The Shire". The Shire is predominantly a residential area but also has substantial industrial and commercial areas.

Population growth in the Shire has been limited by approval of residential development. The population increased from 193,000 in 1996 to over 202,000 in 2001. More recent growth has occurred largely in the Barden Ridge and Menai areas (where new blocks of land for urban development have been released) and around main railway stations. 

Immediate community

Bangor, Bardens Ridge, Engadine, Heathcote, Holsworthy, Illawong, Lucas Heights, Menai, Woronora Heights.(map)

Bangor

Bangor is mostly a residential suburb with a small shopping centre which consists of a post office, bakery, takeaway food, grocery and Bangor Chinese. Most residents rely on other commercial centres, particularly Menai, for services. Bangor's outskirts are surrounded by privately owned bushland, which is undeveloped.

Barden Ridge

Barden Ridge borders Engadine, Lucas Heights and Menai. The district was a part of Lucas Heights until 1966, when the northern section was split away to form a new residential suburb. It was named after the ridge which runs through the area.

This newly developed suburb has a bush out-look with new housing. Reserves and playing fields back onto bushland on Old Illawarra road

Engadine

The Woronora River separates the suburb of Engadine from ANSTO.and the 'Old Princes Highway' passes through the town.

ANSTO have scientific weather measuring instruments at Engadine.

Originally settled for grazing land, Engadine soon became a destination for camping and day-trips from the inner-Sydney suburbs. It remained isolated until 1920 when the railway station was built.

Many ex-soldiers settled in Engadine after World War I and several streets here recall this war and others as well, such as Anzac, Tobruk, Amiens, Bullecourt, Villers Brett  and Nelson streets.

The area features rolling sandstone slopes and cliffs in places, with an abundance of native trees throughout.

Heathcote

Heathcote Road, just south of ANSTO is a major link to Sydney's south western suburbs, while the Princes Highway links Sydney and Wollongong. Heathcote Road meets the Princes Highway at Heathcote.

Heathcote was originally known as Bottle Forest. There were fourteen town allotments in Bottle Forest in 1842, in what is now Heathcote East.

The Heathcote to Waterfall bushwalk became popular as a day outing in the 1930s, and many tracks in Heathcote Bush are used by the Boy Scouts, who have a camp nearby.

Holsworthy

Across the road from ANSTO is Holsworthy. This area is best known for a large Australian Army reserve, Holsworthy Barracks, where training missions are often carried out.

Holsworthy also has a thriving residential area north of the railway line to Canberra and Anzac Village.

Illawong

Illawong, first known as East Menai, was an area where wealthy people of Sydney built holiday homes and weekenders.

Illawong is considered to be a bushfire prone area. This area was ravaged in the 1994 bushfires, which also caused destruction in the suburbs of Alfords Point, Menai and Como.

llawong is an Aboriginal word meaning between two waters, referring to the Georges and Woronora Rivers. Illawong was originally inhabited by the Dharawal and/or Eora tribes who left remnants of their lives in many middens, rock carvings and cave paintings.

Illawong is colloquially known as 'The Wong' to locals.

LucasHeights

Lucas Heights is an unusual suburb in that it doesn't contain a residential area. (There is a small motel) The residential area previously part of Lucas Heights has been renamed Barden Ridge. It was renamed in 1996 to increase the real estate value of the area.

Lucas Heights is located on the Woronora River, which flows north into the Georges River. It is most notable for being the site of ANSTO.

The facility is home to the world class OPAL research reactor. Previously, ANSTO used the historic HIFAR research nuclear reactor. HIFAR was shut down in January 2007.

Lucas Heights is also the location of a non-nuclear waste management facility, which was for many years a major disposal site for sanitary carters. Some of the full landfills on this site are presently being sequentially redeveloped into a sporting complex

Lucas Heights was named after John Lucas Senior, a flour miller who in 1823 was granted 150 acres on the 'head of unnamed stream into Georges River'. He built a water-driven mill for grinding corn from the Illawarra farms. Small ships sailed up the coast into Botany Bay, Georges River and Woronora River.

Menai

Menai is a newer suburb just north of ANSTO and set on a plateau between the Georges and Woronora Rivers.

This fast growing area has some lovely homes viewing the valleys of Bangor and Woronora Heights. New building developments around Menai are increasing the availability of both low and medium density housing in this picturesque bushland suburb.

Menai was the site of many farms not too many years ago, but has developed as a residential area since the early 1980s.

Menai is one of the oldest settlements in the area now embraced by the Sutherland Shire, the first land grants going back to 1829. By 1896 two hundred acres of land were settled and used for farming purposes. The settlers were in a constant battle against the forces of nature, particularly droughts.

The spot was originally called Bangor by a Welsh settler named Owen Jones, who took up land there in 1895. This was later changed in 1910 because of confusion with the town of Bangor in Tasmania. When Menai expanded, the eastern section became Bangor again.

Woronora Heights

The Woronora Plateau is a geographical region next to the Sydney Plain.

Every street in Woronora Heights is named after a bird. It is mandatory that all houses must be made of brick and the telegraph lines are submerged.

Currently, the only road out of Woronora Heights goes through Engadine

Woronora is derived from an Aboriginal word wooloonora, meaning 'black rock'.

Illawarra Roads

New Illawarra road carries a large volume of traffic south from Bankstown in Sydney's mid-west. Construction of Old Illawarra Road took place between 1843 to 1845 and was one of the last public works completed by convicts. The construction allowed the new route towards the South Coast to be about 32 kilometres shorter. At the southern end of the district the engineers took the road across a ford at the head of the Woronora River, naming the ford "Pass of Sabugal", possibly due to the resemblance in scenery of the north-eastern frontier of Portugal.

Royal National park

The Royal National Park was the first park to be declared in Australia. The national park embraces more than 16,000ha of sandstone plateau. Residential areas such as Bundeena and Mainbar have settled within the national park

Heathcote National Park

This is a national park 34 km southwest of Sydney. The park has no private vehicular access. It holds the Woronora dam and water catchment, supplying water to the Sutherland Shire.

Access to the park can be found at several vantage points around the Heathcote area, located in private residential streets around Heathcote.

Nearby Cities

Campbelltown

15km south-west of ANSTO, on the main road and rail link to Melbourne, is the city of Campbelltown, a major commercial centre and a central business district. It is the neighbouring local government area to Sutherland Shire.

Campbelltown was designated in the early1960s as a satellite city and a regional capital for the south west of Sydney.

Known history of the region begins over 40,000 years ago and is contained in the continuing culture of the Dharawal people. The land still contains reminders of their past lives in rock engravings, cave paintings, axe grinding grooves and shell middens.