Burwood was formed as a European settlement in 1799 and was traditionally populated by the Wangal Aboriginal people. Captain Thomas Rowley (1748–1806) received a grant of 260 acres (1.1 km2) in 1799, and called his property Burwood Farm after Burwood Park, England. Following more land grants, his estate increased to 750 acres (3.0 km2) stretching from Parramatta Road to Nicholson Street and The Boulevarde to Croydon railway station, whereat he ran merino sheep on the property.
The first house, Burwood Villa was built in the area in 1814, the same year that a stagecoach began running between Sydney and Parramatta. Burwood became a staging post along the road and the beginnings of a settlement started to develop. Subdivisions in the Burwood area in the 1830s propelled the growth of a village and by 1855, when the railway line came through, Burwood was one of the first six stops on the Sydney-to-Parramatta route. This led to a huge growth in population. In 1874, the area became a municipality.
The 2011 census lists the population of the Burwood area as 32,423 and shows the area to be extremely multicultural in its makeup. It is projected that the population of Burwood will double by 2020.
While 30% of people were born in Australia there is a significant Chinese population of 26% with the remainder consisting primarily of Indian and Korean peoples.
It’s worth noting that only 25% of people in Burwood speak English at home, the majority of languages spoken at home include Mandarin 22.5%, Cantonese 13.1% and Korean 4.3%.
Burwood features many fine examples of architecture from the Victorian and Federation styles. St Paul’s Anglican Church on Burwood Road was designed by colonial architect Edmund Blacket and built in 1871. It is heritage-listed in the NSW State Heritage Register and in the Register of the National Estate.Nearby Woodstock in Church Street was built in the early 1870s by tobacco manufacturer Edwin Penfold. In the 1940s, it was taken over by the army, later becoming Broughton Migrant Hostel, before being bought by the council in 1974 for use as a community centre. Radio station 2RDJ-FM has been broadcasting from Woodstock since November 1983. Further south on Burwood Road is The Priory, built in 1877 by local councillor Mowbray Forrest, and Gayton, built in 1888 by NSW parliamentarian Richard Jones. The heritage’-listed St Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church in Railway Parade was formerly a Methodist church and was built in 1879.
Running between Burwood Road and Liverpool Road is The Appian Way, a model housing estate conceived by George Hoskins at the turn of the century. The street has been described as one of the finest streets of Federation houses in Australia and is state heritage-listed. In the centre of the Appian Way is a communal reserve which was converted into a lawn tennis club.