Culture
The population of Strathfield is made up of a number of ethnic groups, and about 48% of the population born overseas. As a result there are a number of services for newly arrived immigrants and overseas students who live in the area. Two such organisations are the Russian Ethnic Community Council of NSW Inc (RECNSW), and the Sydney Tamil Resource Centre Inc (STRC). RECNSW provides access to information and referral to mainstream services to recent immigrants of Russian and Russian speaking background and disseminates information to remote and offshore areas on a number of issues. STRC provides resources to Tamil immigrants.
In the 1990s, a large number of South Korean migrants settled in Strathfield. This was mainly due to its proximity to Campsie – which had been a de facto centre of Korean people. The boom in Korean international students and establishment of the Strathfield Korean Uniting Church on Homebush Road were other factors. Strathfield now boasts a large number of shops selling Korean food and cultural items.
Strathfield also has a number of community centres, including a Rotary club, Latvian theatre, Lantern Club, and libraries. The local Rotary club provides support to the community and has a number of projects in the area, as well as a Musical Society (part of Rotary?), which normally produces two shows a year in the Latvian Theatre in Strathfield. Their main social activity is rehearsing twice weekly and they present seven performances of their musical production over two weekends. Strathfield Lantern Club Voluntary is located in Strathfield and provides fundraising organisation for raising funds specifically for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children in North Rocks.
The Council operates two libraries: the Central Library in Homebush and a Branch library in Strathfield South. The central library, located in Homebush, was demolished in 2002 and a new library was built and opened in 2004. The Branch Library in Strathfield South was rebuilt and opened in 2008.
Whilst not perhaps basking in quite the same popular musical glory as neighbouring Burwood with its links to the formation of the Easybeats and AC/DC, Strathfield has made its own unique contribution to pop. Strathfield was home during part of the 1960s to The BeeGees (Redmyre Road) and several Australian indie rock and indie pop bands have emerged from Strathfield including Prince Vlad & the Gargoyle Impalers, Lunatic Fringe, The Upbeat, Women of Troy member Paul O'Reilly, and The Mexican Spitfires. Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens also lived in Carrington Avenue, Strathfield for a number of years in the 1990s.
The lyrics of the song by Radio Birdman, Murder City Nights refers to Woodward Road, Strathfield:
- Cruising down Woodward gotta find me some action
- Looking for a lover with a power reaction.
Strathfield has also been home to a number of famous sporting identities including cricketers Bobby Simpson and Alan Davidson and three Prime Ministers, Frank Forde, Billy Hughes and George Reid.
Read more about this topic: Municipality Of Strathfield
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Everyone in our culture wants to win a prize. Perhaps that is the grand lesson we have taken with us from kindergarten in the age of perversions of Dewey-style education: everyone gets a ribbon, and praise becomes a meaningless narcotic to soothe egoistic distemper.”
—Gerald Early (b. 1952)
“The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1953)
“The second fundamental feature of culture is that all culture has an element of striving.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)