Best 44 Real Estate Agents In Redfern [2025]

Redfern Suburb Overview

Redfern is an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Redfern is 3 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney. Strawberry Hills is a locality on the border with Surry Hills

Redfern is subject to extensive redevelopment plans by the state government, to increase the population and reduce the concentration of poverty in the suburb and neighbouring Waterloo .

The suburb is named after surgeon William Redfern, who was granted 100 acres of land in this area in 1817 by Lachlan Macquarie. He built a country house on his property surrounded by flower and kitchen gardens. His neighbours were Captain Cleveland, an officer of the 73rd regiment, who built Cleveland House and John Baptist, who ran a nursery and seed business. Sydney’s original railway terminus was built in Cleveland Paddocks and extended from Cleveland Street to Devonshire Street and west to Chippendale. The station’s name was chosen to honour William Redfern. At that time, the present Redfern station was known as Eveleigh. When Central station was built further north on the site of the Devonshire Street cemetery, Eveleigh station became Redfern and Eveleigh was retained for the name of the railway workshops, south of the station. The remains of Cleveland Paddocks became Prince Alfred Park.

Redfern has been characterised by migrant populations that have lived in the area. In the late 19th century many of the businessmen in the area were from Syria such as George Dan 1890, Stanton and Aziz Melick in 1888 and Shafiqah Shasha and Anthony and Simon Coorey in the 1890s. As waves of immigrants arrived in Australia, many made Redfern their first home.

The notorious Redfern Mail Exchange was built in 1965, after 300 people were evicted from their homes on the 2.15 hectare site. It became the scene of many industrial disputes when the automatic mail-sorting machinery which was supposed to sort efficiently, actually destroyed many letters. It became known as the Redfern Mangler.

The 2004 Redfern riots began on 14 February 2004, at the end of Eveleigh Street outside Redfern station, sparked by the death of Thomas ‘TJ’ Hickey. The teenager, riding on his bicycle, was allegedly being chased by a police vehicle, which led to his impalement on a fence. Members of his family were then reported to have started grieving for TJ around Eveleigh Street with a crowd gathering commiserating with the family. Fliers were distributed blaming police for TJ’s death. The police closed the Eveleigh Street entrance to the railway station, but youths in the crowd became violent, throwing bricks and bottles;this escalated into a riot. A subsequent inquest found that although the police were following Hickey, they had not caused the accident, a verdict that caused controversy in Redfern’s Aboriginal community. The riots sparked fresh debate into the welfare of Australian Aborigines and the response of the police to those living in the Redfern area.

The main shopping strip is located on Redfern Street, east of Redfern railway station. There are also commercial developments nearby, along Regent Street and surrounding streets. The Redfern skyline is dominated by two office towers located between Regent Street and Gibbons Street, beside Redfern railway station.

Redfern railway station, located on the western edge of the suburb is a major station on the CityRail network. Redfern is the first station south from Central Sydney terminus on the edge of the city. Redfern station is the closest station to the main campus of the University of Sydney at Camperdown and Darlington. A near-constant stream of commuters, mostly students, flows from Redfern station along the south side of Lawson Street towards the university in the morning, and back towards the station in a largely hourly rhythm in the afternoon.

St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church is on Redfern Street. St Saviour’s Anglican Church is on Young Street. St George Antioch Orthodox Church is on the corner of Walker Street and Cooper Street. The Greek Orthodox Church in Cleveland Street is called the Cathedral of the Annunciation of Our Lady, formerly St Paul’s Church of England built in 1848 and designed by Edmund Blacket. The St Andrews Greek Orthodox Theological College sits beside it.

The population of the suburb spans a broad spectrum of socioeconomic characteristics. This may be partly due to the geography of the suburb, which is long, narrow, and centrally located. Eastern Redfern has become increasingly gentrified, with many medium and high density developments replacing low density and industrial developments.

According to the 2011 census, Redfern has a population of 12,035 people, with aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people making up 2.4% of the population. 50.8% of the population was born overseas. 61.7% of the population only spoke English at home, with the most important other languages being Chinese languages , Greek , Russian and Arabic . 34.5% of the population identified with no religion/atheism, higher than the national average. Of the remainder, 18.9% were Catholic, 9.1% Anglican, 3.9% Eastern Orthodox, and 3.8% Buddhist.

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