Bankstown

[2] Hunter examined the country himself, and established one of the pioneer colonies there, called Bank's Town, today written as one word: Bankstown.[3] Hunter named the area Bankstown after Sir Joseph Banks, who travelled to Australia with Captain James Cook in 1770.In 1945 operations became the responsibility of the British Fleet Air Arm, known as HMS Nabberley,[7] until 1946, when it was handed back to the RAAF.Their living quarters were located next door and down the road from the hall and the staff were housed in galvanised iron barracks.Few factories or industry of any consequence were located in Bankstown prior to 1945; this was changed dramatically between 1942 and 1954, especially when the Department of Aircraft Production gave approval for aircraft manufacturer Hawker De Havilland to operate a factory at the airport for the production and manufacture of de Havilland Mosquito bombers.[6]: 13 The Bankstown Bunker is of similar design to the underground Ops rooms of wartime England, which directed Britain's air defence fighter plane attacks on the invading German Luftwaffe.Entrance to the bunker was obtained through a concrete passageway which was well screened by a grassy slope; a stairway led to a maze of corridors and hallways leading to various sections.[12][13] The Bankstown bunker is currently buried under a public park, surrounded by residential dwellings at the northern end of Taylor Street.People relocated from the inner-city and incoming migrants came, first as refugees from Europe and towards the end of the 20th century from Asia and the Middle East (especially Vietnamese and Lebanese[16]) and the rest of the world.Bankstown Council relocated to its third premises in 1963 when the Civic Centre that was located at the corner of Chapel Road and The Mall was constructed.Bankstown's annual mean rainfall is 869.0mm, slightly less than the Sydney CBD, which is affected more by coastal showers which do not penetrate very far inland.The suburb is affected with unusually high unemployment and is subject to a dedicated income management program specifically targeting the problem.[23] 'Paul Keating Park' was built on the site of Bankstown Council's former administration building, after it was destroyed by fire on 1 July 1997.[citation needed] Bankstown's first public school was built where McLeod Reserve is currently situated in 1880.The next top responses for country of birth were 15.6% Vietnam, 6.0% Lebanon, 4.8% China (excludes Taiwan and SARs), 3.2% Pakistan and 3.1% Bangladesh.[1] 18.0% of people spoke only English at home; the next most common languages were 20.3% Vietnamese, 19.3% Arabic, 5.1% Urdu, 4.7% Mandarin and 3.7% Bengali.