Eastwood

Originally thought to have been inhabited by the Wallumedegal people, the area was first settled by Europeans shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet, from land grants to Royal Marines and NSW Corps. John Love owned 90 acres in 1794, which was acquired by William Kent and then William Rutledge, an early Irish free settler who named the area "Eastwood". He built Eastwood House in 1840 which is now part of the Marist Brothers College Eastwood.  John Ross, a Scot, owned the area from 1860 – 1863 with it being purchased by Edward Terry. Upon Terry’s death the estate was sub-divided.

The railway station, built in 1886, originally called Dundas, was renamed Eastwood in 1887. Eastwood is famous for the Granny Smith apple, accidentally first grown in the suburb by Maria Ann Smith. Every October, the oval (which was originally a lake) and cordoned-off streets become the grounds for the annual Granny Smith Festival, a celebration of the icon with fairground rides, market stalls, street theatres, parades, an apple-baking competition and a fireworks spectacular at the Upper Eastwood Oval. In recent years the festival has been influenced by the substantial Asian immigrant communities, with Chinese dragon dancers in the Grand Parade and Chinese stallholders.

From the 1960s, migrants mainly from Southern Europe settled in the area, followed, from the 1980s, by many Chinese and Koreans. Today it is a large suburban centre in the north of Sydney of over 17,000 people, with a large shopping area. Eastwood has a large population of Asian descent with immigrants from China and South Korea transforming the commercial precinct in the past decade. The railway line splits the suburb – the Eastern side is typically Korean; the Western side is Chinese. e are exploring the Korean side.

Taste Cultural Tours

Taste Cultural Tours is a charity and social enterprise, started by the Benevolent Society in 2010, who train local-to-the-area people to promote cross cultural understanding, restaurants, other small businesses and food! We met our Taste food tour guide, Taekyoung Kim and head up to the Eastside Gardens Shopping Centre. Our first stop is Pu Ji Mi Korean restaurant, where we share bulgogi and bibimbap with lots of Korean condiments. The owner had over 70 chain restaurants in South Korea before establishing this restaurant 7 years ago.