Menai, New South Wales
Menai suburb in
southern Sydney, in the state of
New South Wales,
Australia. It is located 29km south of the
Sydney central business district in the
Sutherland Shire.
Menai is not, as many people first guess, an
Aboriginal name, but is named after
Menai Bridge, a town on the
Menai Straits in
Wales,
Great Britain.
The area now known as Menai was originally called Bangor in 1895 by the land's owner, a farmer named Owen Jones, after his birthplace
Bangor in
Wales. To avoid confusion with Bangor in
Tasmania, the Postmaster General's Office changed the suburb name to Menai in 1910. Menai Bridge in Wales, lies opposite Bangor on the Menai Straits.
When Menai expanded, the eastern section became
Bangor again.
Menai is a newer suburb, having been developed only since the early
1980s, and as such, nearly all the homes are new 4-bedders with dual bathrooms and double-garages and mostly owner occupied. In fact, the region has the highest rate of home ownership in Australia, at over 70% (according to the last census).
More affluent resident throughout Sutherland Shire tend to disparage those from Menai because of the prevelance and density of its housing estates.
Overdevelopment of housing and a lack of existing through-roads in this bushland suburb led to traffic congestion. The completion of the first stage of
Bangor Bypass project in 2005 has reduced the problem.
Menai contains a bustling shopping centre, with many fine restaurants, retail stores, supermarkets and recently an
EB. The restaurants include Caesars Gourmet Pizza Restaurant, Rocksalt, Timeout Cafè, Palace Garden Chinese restaurant and Bua Thai.
Current community projects include a new indoor sporting complex adjacent to the Menai shopping centre. Menai is home to the
Menai Junior Rugby League Football Club who are known by the rhyming couplet "menai, head high", in a reference to their tough playing style by other
rugby league juniors throughout the
Sutherland Shire. A large outdoor series of playing fields, including a new championship golf course and a new state of the art athletics field, are found in the nearby suburb of
Barden Ridge, just a few minutes away these will be accompanied by hockey fields and a world class BMX facility.
Menai's schools include Menai Primary [K-6], Aquinas College [Catholic, 7-12] and Holy Family [Catholic, K-6], residents also use schools in neighbouring suburbs such as Alfords Point Primary [Public, K-6] in Alfords Point, Menai High [Public, 7-12], Tharawal [Public, K-6] and Illawong Primary [Public, K-6] in Illawong and Bangor Primary School [K-6] and Inaburra High School [K-12] in Bangor.
