Bidwill

Bidwill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Bidwill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bidwill is located 48 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

Bidwill takes its name from John Carne Bidwill (1815-1853) appointed as botanist in charge at the Botanic Gardens in 1847. Prior to settlement and colonisation of Australia, Bidwill and the surrounding area was inhabited by the Darug tribe.

Bidwill was dominated by the development of public housing in the 1960s and 1970s. In recent times, Bidwill has been associated with social and economic problems. These have resulted in an increase of crime and such trouble as riots.Over the years Bidwill has become a community where more than 90 per cent are living on Centrelink payments. For many of its residents, what started as a short stay in public housing has turned into years and generations of unemployment and welfare reliance. It is renowned for drug use, violence, mental illness and poverty.