Wentworthville Suburb Review

Amenity-rich suburb with good transport connections is not pretty, but safe and convenient enough - although increasingly busy.

Summary: For a suburb that’s not physically too large, Wentworthville located to Sydney’s west packs quite a lot into the space it has. This is a slice of Sydney that contains a relatively balanced mix of everything, with a leaning towards the impressive side in terms of amenities – largely Indian-influenced – in particular. It’s home to a very diverse housing profile, centered mainly around clusters of single-level freestanding homes on occasionally-pretty streets that are gradually being encroached on by more and more low and mid-rise apartment blocks.

There’s an aura of ongoing construction and renovation to Wentworthville that can be seen in its continuing excess of higher-density buildings, but also its improving public facilities. While it’s not a “beautiful” suburb on the whole, it’s likely better than you think, and its above-average public transport, proximity to Parramatta, and somewhat affordable homes make up for its sometimes-hectic atmosphere and some traffic issues. Overall, it’s probably slightly underrated – particularly for families due to an abundance of childcare.

Key stats

Part of a group of suburbs in Western Sydney that are among some of the fastest-growing in the whole city over recent years, Wentworthville has continued to have its face changed in order to accommodate all of these extra people.

In many ways, it boasts a number of similarities to Lidcombe a little further to the east – just with more of an Indian-influenced as opposed to Korean-influenced demographic flavour.

The two suburbs share characteristics in terms of immediate proximity to major roads, good public transport connections, an abundance of amenities, overall bustle, and being slightly better overall than public perception often suggests.

They also have a number of under the radar little spots and streets that help give them an extra slight dose of beauty and character, despite not being particularly pretty on the whole.

Wentworthville’s initial major drawcard for most as a potential place to live is its close proximity to the Parramatta CBD, while still not having the “true” Sydney CBD too far out of reach via public transport, either.

Its train station provides a high frequency of services that can have you in Parramatta within around 10 minutes, or all the way through to Central in about 35 minutes. Its lines also run services that go through to areas further out such as Leppington and Schofields as well, making for a pretty versatile hub for rail-based transport.

This isn’t limited to trains, either; its bus services are also comprehensive and take advantage of Wentworthville’s immediate proximity to the Great Western Highway to provide connections to additional adjacent suburbs.

Both this and the Cumberland Highway (which splits the suburb in two) also offer an obvious convenient avenue for drivers as well, although the rapid development and population growth of Wentworthville and some of its neighbours in recent years has had onflow effects to its traffic situation.

This carries over to parking as well, with growth in the area making parts of Wentworthville – such as its main streetside shopping strip – increasingly difficult to find a spot.

This major amenity strip is largely centered around the duo of Dunmore and Station Streets adjacent to Wentworthville’s train station, and is reflective of how the suburb’s demographics have shifted.

It’s become one of the favoured spots for Indian residents in recent times, and the influence of this is obvious; it’s home to a wide range of quality Indian restaurants and other Indian-themed services and retail – think names like Bollywood Beauty, Little India Supermarket, and you’ve got the general picture.

These are rounded out by several large-scale Indian themed supermarkets that offer a huge variety of exotic goods for cooking and general home life as well. As a result, it’s home to some of the best Indian food in Sydney, yet still has enough other “generic” dining options in the way of mainstream brand-name fast food outlets dotted throughout to break things up as well.

This strip is also pretty comprehensive in the array of general services it provides, with multiple bank branches, gyms, real estate agents, chemists and more, and while it’s physically a little tired and rundown in spots it has more than enough to cater for most daily needs.

Local haunt the Wentworthville Hotel is the go-to watering hole in this area that’s a decent if fairly standard pub offering beer, friendly staff, screens to watch sports, pokies, and not too much else.

The central cluster of amenities here would be enough to get by in itself, however the strength of Wentworthville lies in its array of auxiliary shops and bigger-box retail dotted throughout as well. This extends to its additional bigger stores in the suburb’s south along the highway, highlighted by the Wentworthville Shopping Plaza which contains a Woolworths and various other mixed shops.

Meanwhile across the road, you’ve got larger-scale stores including the likes of ALDI, Supacheap Auto, Officeworks, a warehouse-sized Dan Murphy’s and even a random Outback Steakhouse for no particular reason.

One other noteworthy aspect is its abundance of medical services. Wentworthville is host to numerous clinics, dental and other mixed medical practices, while even more sit in close proximity in bigger form in neighbouring Westmead for hospitals and other larger-scale treatment needs – as well as job opportunities in the medical field.

Wentworthville is also not a typical bland/uneventful residential suburb that’s entirely lacking in activity, mostly due to the presence of the Wentworth Leagues Club a.k.a Wenty Leagues.

This is a pretty massive, recently-renovated complex with ample free parking, and well-equipped in all the facilities and variety in dining options you could want.

Its neighbouring cricket pitch and sporting field makes not only for a quality grounds but solid viewing as well, with plenty of shade and seating for spectators and the ability to accommodate football and more.

The suburb is a little lacking in other non-sport-based entertainment, but it’s still better than most average residential suburbs in this area. Its Youth Centre is also currently undergoing an upgrade that, when complete, will provide a newly-enhanced spot for swimming and other activities as well.

Nature and environment-wise, Wentworthville has its ups and downs.

Its residential streets can vary wildly from one street to another – while tree cover is decent if unspectacular overall, one street to the next can go from anywhere to having rundown and dirty elements and scattered rubbish, to immaculately-groomed rows of houses with gorgeous rose gardens.

There’s a weird juxtaposition in that there seems to be a ton of house-pride and upkeep for the houses themselves, and yet public streets are prone to high amounts of litter.

Its closest thing to a flagship park is its long, strip-like public Village Green area that runs alongside Finlaysons Creek – although this is a “creek” in name only, with minimal water unless there’s been ample recent rainfall.

It’s fairly sizeable and offers a long and narrow stretch of greenery with playground, picnic & barbecue facilities, and a couple of sports pitches and courts along with decent tree shading.

The most interesting quirk here comes courtesy of its Community Garden, a cool little spot in which local residents can have their own little crop of land, utilise community tools, and grow their own veggies.

Outside of a couple of other little corner parks and reserves dotted throughout that are mostly centered around playground equipment for kids – notably Frank Hayes Park – there’s not much else of a scenic aspect to Wentworthville, and its position this far to the west of Sydney means that accessing beaches is a massive chore.

It’s not a “concrete jungle”, but also not somewhere you’d go out of your way to enjoy natural aspects in.

Some historical aspects of Wentworthville do remain that are midly photogenic in their own way. These are mostly architectural in the form of sandstone churches or historic homes that are under redevelopment proposal, as opposed to natural features.

At its core, Wentworthville’s popularity has largely boomed due to its appeal for families who need transport connectivity.

The suburb has become home to a massive array of childcare and early learning centres, preschools and kindergartens in order to cater to its ballooning population of families, and these can be found in almost every corner of its layout.

It also offers several options for both public and Catholic schooling options, with class sizes that have likewise swollen in recent years that can sometimes make it more difficult to enlist your children to attend.

In terms of safety, Wentworthville fares quite well. While it has had the occasional one-off major crime issue in the past, in recent years its family-oriented leanings combine with reasonably low overall crime stats to make for a non-threatening streetscape with a lower-mid-tier crime rate per capita of 0.10%.

This a number which places it alongside more “prestigious” suburbs such as Balmain and Gymea statistically, for comparison.

It’s not hard to see how Wentworthville’s population has ballooned – and will continue to grow – just by looking at its streetscape.

While there are multiple pockets of the suburb that remain mostly low-density, single-level residential homes, there’s a substantial amount of new, low-and-mid-rise apartment construction that has both been recently completed, and is still underway.

These range from older and established brick unit complexes to multiple clusters of newly-built, modern and rendered apartment blocks in several parts of Wentworthville – both along the highway, and increasingly mixed in among its freestanding homes.

As a result, in many parts of the suburb it’s busy enough that it almost always feels like someone is walking behind you. Its public spaces can also be busy, which leads to occasional spillover noise issues as well.

This has also led to what seems like a massive oversupply of apartments in general, while several streets also have rows of dense townhouses on fairly miniscule blocks being dotted in as well.

On the plus side, Wentworthville’s housing profile is now incredibly diverse and offers quite a lot of choice to cater for a range of family sizes and budget levels.

You’ve got legacy pockets of older fibro homes, several complexes of single-level villas, more expensive renovated double-story freestanding homes and more all in addition to these new apartments and townhouses to provide quite the smorgasbord of accommodation to choose from, both high and low-end.

This ranges all the way up to the newest and biggest modern homes – most of which are clustered in Wentworthville’s north-eastern pocket – for those with extra cash to throw around.

It’s one of the bigger gaps between freestanding home price vs. that of apartments, and symbolic of the wealth gap between the two.

Wentworthville’s house property prices have skyrocketed in recent years, while its glut of apartments mean you can potentially snag something pretty affordable although you’ll likely be playing Russian Roulette with the build quality.

“Wentworthville’s housing profile is now incredibly diverse and offers quite a lot of choice to cater for a range of family sizes and budget levels.”

As a result, unless you’ve got the funds to snag a standalone house, Wentworthville comes across as your typical “good place to rent for a few years” suburb.

That is to say, one in which to take advantage of its convenient transport connections and amenities without committing to buying an apartment of potentially dubious build quality that may see no capital gains for years to come.

Price-wise for property, Wentworthville is a decent chunk cheaper than the Sydney median but its recent rises mean it is now far from being a bargain – particularly for houses.

Median house prices currently sit around the $950,000 mark at time of writing, however many of the homes on the lower end of this spectrum may require renovation, while the larger homes can eclipse this price easily and go well over the $1 million mark.

Apartments are a different matter; there’s a range of options for 2 and even 3 bedroom units for around the $550k-$600k mark available, as well as an abundance of properties both old and new available for lease.

The ability to rent a newly-built place with modern finishings and enjoy Wentworthville’s convenience for Parramatta workers for just over $400 per week is an appealing option, too, and one well worth considering.

The Verdict

It’s not hard to see why Wentworthville has become a popular go-to hub for Indian residents in particular as a base to settle given its proximity to useful parts of Western Sydney without exposure to many negative crime statistics or lack of amenities which plague some of the alternatives further out.

It sits in a position that makes all of the major hubs of Sydney – the city, Parramatta, Blacktown, even Penrith – all within commutable distance by public transport, while providing just enough balance in terms of streetscape and greenery to not feel too oppressive or overdeveloped (yet).

The suburb has an admirable balance of shopping and services both large and small, while many of its residential streets range anywhere from “ok” to “quite pretty” without having to blow the budget out to extreme levels. Its options for housing of all shapes and sizes offers a level of flexibility that makes it a cater-to-almost-everyone neighbourhood, and while its family-centric leanings would seem to make it potentially “boring”, it’s got just enough in the way of entertainment offerings to be slightly above this level.

While it’s not going to draw in the younger crowd for its entertainment specifically, its proximity to Parramatta helps provide more options not far away. It’s also not physically beautiful, although there are far worse parts of Sydney and its greenery is adequate in pockets, with a handful of very pretty residential streets in particular.

The main concerns lie with Wentworthville’s future. While providing additional housing throughout Sydney is obviously necessary, there’s quite a lot of fairly high-density being concentrated in this area and its surrounds, and while the current infrastructure is pretty solid in terms of road, rail, services and shopping, the potential exists for capacity to get out of control down the track.

Our key takeaway would be, unless you’re able to buy an established house: rent first, don’t buy. Do that, and Wentworthville is quite good value for those considering – or based in – Western Sydney.