Panania, New South Wales

Panania is a residential suburb of southwestern Sydney, Australia. It is 23 kilometres from Sydney's Central Business District, within the Bankstown City Council local government area, and is sited west of Revesby and east of East Hills, along the East Hills railway corridor. The suburb is bounded on the North by the M5 Motorway and the suburb of Milperra and on the South by Picnic Point which features some beautiful parklands along the Georges River.

Panania was developed after World War 2 and consists for the most part of modest freestanding bungalows built of asbestos cement sheeting (commonly known as fibro). It has a retail shopping area, adjacent to its railway station, and is the site of several local government facilities including a senior citizens centre and a public library.

Other notable public buildings include Holy Trinity Anglican church, and St Christopher's Roman Catholic church and parish school. St Christopher's church is housed within a converted Art Deco cinema, and retains a number of original features, including a decorative ceiling. The Georges River National Park also lies largely within Panania's suburban boundaries.

The name Panania was given to the area when the train line was completed in 1931. During the construction of the line the name Nioka was used for the train station, an aboriginal word meaning the green hill. The name Panania is another aboriginal word meaning the sun rising in the east and shining on hills (Davies et al.,1979). Another similar, but unrelated name is Pannonia, which was an ancient province of the Roman Empire southeast of the Danube River.

References

• Jacqueline Davies, Dorothy Mulholland, Nora Pipe(1979). West of the River Road, Towrang Publications, p20.