Area Info

Maroubra Area Info

Maroubra is a beachside suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Maroubra is located 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Randwick. Maroubra is part of the Eastern Suburbs region. Maroubra Junction is a locality in the centre of the suburb.

History

Maroubra is a local Aboriginal word meaning windy place In 1861, the first house was built in the area by Humphrey McKeon. A number of other settlers arrived on the land in the 1870s to work on the wool scouring works located at the northern end of the bay.

The suburb first made headlines on the 6 May 1898, when the Hereward, a fully-rigged iron ship weighing 1,513 tons, was caught by the gale force winds and shipwrecked at the northern end of Maroubra Beach while heading north toward Newcastle. The shipwreck remained on the beach for a number of years until a failed attempt to refloat it was made by building a coffer dam around the wreck. Hereward Street in Maroubra is named after the event.

Major residential development only began in the 1910s after Herbert Dudley, a real estate developer, subdivided the land into residential blocks. Herbert Dudley also lobbied for the extension of the tramline to Maroubra Junction in 1912, where he had built Dudley's Emporium which has just recently been redeveloped. More crown land was released for residential use in the 1920s and the tram line was extended to Maroubra Beach in 1921.

Between 1925 and 1934, the Olympia Motor Speedway was located in South Maroubra at the corner of Anzac Parade and Fitzgerald Avenue. However, due to the dangerous nature of the concrete track, a number of deaths occurred and it was closed after only nine years of operation. Coral Sea Park was created on the site in 1947, which was named after the 1942 battle of the Coral Sea. Surrounding streets were named after the allied warships that participated in that battle.

The night after the Cronulla race-riots in December 2005, Maroubra was the scene of violent reprisal attacks with extensive damage inflicated on vehicles and property. It was assumed that Maroubra was chosen as the target of this retribution because of its association with the surfie group known as the Bra Boys. However, it later emerged that the Bra Boys had nothing to do with the Cronulla riots and the Maroubra reprisals were basically in error.

In 2006, Maroubra Beach became the second Australian beach to be named a National Surfing Reserve (the first beach being Bells Beach in Victoria).

Maroubra Beach

Maroubra Beach sits on Maroubra Bay. Mahon Pool is located north of the beach, near Mistral Point. There are two surf clubs at Maroubra: Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club and South Maroubra Surf Life Saving Club. Arthur Byrne Reserve sits behind both these clubs.

Commercial Area

Maroubra Junction is one of the main shopping areas in the district and is home to the new Pacific Square shopping centre (previously known as Maroubra Mall). Pacific Square shopping centre has an outdoor eating area on Anzac Parade, Coles and Aldi supermarkets and many specialty shops.

Originally, Stockland Maroubra Mall was a small shopping centre featuring Grace Brothers, the only department store in the south-eastern suburbs. When nearby Westfield Eastgardens was built, it became the site of many factory outlets before the redevelopment created a new shopping centre below an apartment block. Commercial developments are also found along Anzac Parade, Maroubra Road and surrounding streets, including Dudley's Emporium which was the first shopping centre in Maroubra Junction built in 1912 and recently redeveloped.

There are also a handful of shopping strips besides Maroubra Junction, such as the once-thriving but now notorious Lexington Place, the recently redeveloped Duffy's Corner (the former site of the first Duffy Brothers fruit market) and the South Maroubra Shopping Village near Maroubra Beach (also known as "The Sands") which is home to many well-known shops.