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Cabramatta, also abbreviated as Cabra, is a suburb in South Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cabramatta is located south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Fairfield.
Cabramatta has been a melting pot for Southeast Asian and European peoples in the latter half of the 20th century. Initially, since the 1980s, Cabramatta has been a centre and community for the Vietnamese, as well as many residents from other Asian origins. Because of its high Vietnamese population, the suburb has earned the nickname 'Little Saigon'. Enclave, Place, or Nation? Defining Little Saigon in the Midst of Incorporation, Transnationalism, and Long Distance Activism by Christian Collet and Hiroko Furuya from Amerasia Journal 36:3 (2010): 1-27. January 2010. Retrieved 29 November 2022. Sydney by Sam Holmes. The Wall Street Journal Asia. June 21, 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
The name Cabramatta first came into use in the area in the early 19th century when the Bull family named a property they had purchased 'Cabramatta Park'. When a small village formed nearby in 1814, it took its name from that property. A township grew from this village, and a railway was built through Cabramatta in the 1850s. It was used for loading and unloading freight and livestock. The railway station was not open for public transport until 1856; a school was established in 1882, and a post office in 1886. Cabramatta remained a predominantly agricultural township. The Book of Sydney Suburbs, Compiled by Frances Pollon, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia , page 43
It developed a close community relationship with neighbouring Canley Vale, and until 1899, they shared a common municipality.
In the 1980s, Cabramatta and the surrounding Fairfield area was characterised by a diversity of Australian-born children having migrant parents. Cabramatta High School was statistically the most diverse and multicultural school in Sydney, and a study showed that only 10% of children had both parents born in Australia. While many other parts of Sydney had their particular ethnic flavour, Cabramatta was something of a melting pot.
During the 1980s, many of these migrant parents and their children – now young adults – were to settle and populate new housing developments in surrounding areas such as Smithfield and Bonnyrigg that were, until that time, market gardens or semi-rural areas owned by the previous generation. In the 1960s and 1970s, the migrant hostel – along with its peer in Villawood – hosted a second wave of migration: this time from south-east Asia as a result of the Vietnam War. During the 1980s, Cabramatta was transformed into a thriving Asian community, displacing many of the previous migrant generation. The students of local Cabramatta High School represented all manner of people with Asian or European descent. By the early 1980s migration to Cabramatta declined, and as a result the migrant hostel and its many hundreds of small empty apartments lay prey to vandalism. Only the language school remained: it continued to teach English as a Second Language, until the entire hostel site was demolished and redeveloped into residential housing. A walk through the hostel before its demolition would have revealed closed and boarded-up corrugated iron buildings once home to kitchens, washing facilities, administration and so forth.
Dutton Plaza, a three-storey building located centrally within the Cabramatta CBD, was opened in June 2016. The Fairfield City Council funded and owned retail development replaced an existing Council owned at-grade car park and amenities building, with all income from the new development to be invested in community projects. The development comprises 31 retail premises and amenities on the ground floor, four offices on the first floor, and 275 car spaces on the first and second floors. The public open space fronting the main entrance on the eastern side of the plaza was named Gough Whitlam Place, in honour of Gough Whitlam who represented Cabramatta as the Member for Werriwa from 1952 to 1978.
In addition to plazas, the suburb features a number of arcades and lanes that contain retail stores, eateries and cafes. Such passageways include Belvedere Arcade, Dutton Lane, Ingal Way and Viet Hoa Arcade, among others.
Other parks located in Cabramatta include Heather King Park (located on Vale St), Hughes Street Park, Longfield Street Park, Bolivia Street Park, Antonietta Street Park, Bowden Street Reserve and Panorama Street Reserve.Fairfield City Council. "Fairfield City Parks List" . Retrieved 22 June 2014.
For details of bus services see Cabramatta station.
12.7% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Vietnamese 43.3%, Cantonese 9.8%, Khmer language 7.2%, Mandarin 4.9% and Min Nan 2.1%. The most common responses for religion in Cabramatta (State Suburbs) were Buddhism 42.2%, No Religion 24.0%, Catholic 13.5%, Not stated 8.1% and Christianity (Not Further Definition) 2.2%.
Little Fish (2005) was filmed in the Cabramatta area. It starred Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving and Martin Henderson. Little Fish is about Tracy Heart, a former heroin addict who is desperately trying to escape her past and achieve her goals and dreams. Tracy lives with her mother and brother Ray in the suburb of Cabramatta, where heroin is readily available.
The Finished People by Khoa Do, drama about three youths living on the streets of Cabramatta.
Ra Choi is the story of four street kids down on their luck and trying to make a life for themselves in Cabramatta.
Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta, a three-part documentary aired on SBS in 2012.
Change of Our Lives (2013) is a film by Maria Tran about the Vietnamese community and hepatitis B, set in Cabramatta. The movie was commissioned by the Cancer Council and Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE).
The Coconut Children by Vivian Pham gritty coming of age romance novel published in 2020 set in Cabramatta's 1990s among the Vietnamese diaspora. ‘Life in the troubled neighborhood of Cabramatta demands too much too young. But Sonny wouldn't really know. Watching the world from her bedroom window, she exists only in second-hand romance novels and falls for any fast-food employee who happens to spare her a glance. Everything changes with the return of Vince, a boy who became a legend after he was hauled away in handcuffs. Sonny and Vince used to be childhood friends. But with all that happened in-between, childhood seems so long ago. It will take two years of juvie, an inebriated grandmother and an unexpected discovery for them to meet again.
All Thats Left Unsaid a book released in 2022 by Tracey Lien, ‘a young Vietnamese-Australian woman who returns home to her family in 90s Cabramatta in the wake of her brother’s shocking murder, determined to discover what happened a dramatic exploration of the intricate bonds and obligations of friendship, family, and community.’
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