Middle Dural

History

Dural is derived from Dooral-Dooral, an Aboriginal name meaning a smoking hollow tree. The original inhabitants of the Dural area were the Darug people. The name Dooral appeared on Surveyor James Meehan's map of April 1817 and originally covered the whole area including present day Glenorie, Galston, Arcadia and Dural. Timber cutters opened up the area in the early 19th century and the settlements were originally known as Upper, Middle, Lower, North and Little Dural. Located on the Old Northern Road, a historic road built by convicts between 1825 and 1836 to link early Sydney, in the Colony of New South Wales, with the fertile Hunter Valley to the north. In 1831 George Best established the Half-Way Inn at Middle Dural.

Since the 1970s the Banana Cabana Primate Sanctuary has existed in Middle Dural as a retirement facility for ex-circus and zoo monkeys such as hamadryas baboons, long-tailed macaques, rhesus macaques, black-handed spider monkeys, brown capuchins, common marmosets and even a tortoise species (leopard tortoise).

Demographics

At the 2021 census, the suburb of Middle Dural recorded a population of 1,040 residents. Of these:

• The age distribution was older than the country in general: the median age was 46 years, compared to the national median of 38 years. Children aged under 15 years made up 17.8% of the population—the national average was 18.2%—and people aged 65 years and over made up 21.2% of the population, the national average was 17.2%.
• 73.4% were born in Australia, the next most common countries of birth were England 4.4%, Italy 2.8%, China 2.1%, India 2.1%, and Lebanon 1.6%. 48.2% of people had both parents born in Australia.
• 80.7% only spoke English at home; other languages spoken at home included Italian 3.4%, Arabic 2.1%, Mandarin 2.1%, Punjabi 1.1%, and Greek 1.0%.
• The median household weekly income was $3,067, compared to the national median of $1,746. The median monthly mortgage repayment was $3,588.
• 88.9% of households were family households, 11.1% were single-person households and 0.0% were group households. The average household size was 3.4 people.

References

References

1. {{Census 2021 AUS
2. ''The Book of Sydney Suburbs'', Compiled by Frances Pollon, Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1990, Published in Australia {{ISBN. 0-207-14495-8
3. (19 November 2013). "History of Dural | Dural and Round Corner".