About The Area
We love our town!! Sounds corny maybe but if you think of the TV show Heartbeat then you're not too far from how we feel. To know the local policeman by first name is a rare treat in today's world, the firemen and rescue team are all our friends.
Please visit www.portlandnsw.com.au where you will get a far better insight into what our town has to offer. The yardstick we all hang our hats on is that the township of Portland has a home owner occupation of 80%. This means in real terms that your neighbour cares about the community we all live in as much as you will come to, and in the modern world these sentiments are invaluable.
We have had a writing competition at St Joseph primary school. My town by Claire Jefree. Portland is an historic mining town that is just over two hours west of Sydney. Portland was once a busy place built around the Portland Cement Works that opened in 1902.Portland became a town in 1906.The people who worked at the Portland cement works helped to build Sydney using Portland cement. The cement was also shipped all over Australia to build towers and roads until the cement works closed in 1991.I have really enjoyed living in Portland. It is a nice quiet country town without any crime like what you see on the news in the city. I love going to school at St Joseph's Catholic School. I like going to the pool in summer. The pool was built many years ago by the people who worked at the Portland cement works. There are a lot of friendly people in Portland. You can go out for a walk or ride and know that you are safe. We have a great community of people. We have an SES,two fire brigades (my pop is captain), St Vinnies,CWA and meals on wheels. My Nan and Pop deliver food for sick and old people. We have a movie theatre here that people volunteer to run for us. Blinky Bill Preschool and our community centre were both built by the people that live in Portland. I love going for a walk down the street and looking at all the painted murals. My favourite is the horses pulling the carriages. These murals were painted by Ron Bidwell. He is a very nice, well known local man. We also have a new hospital and two old peoples homes. There are two pubs and three clubs. We used to have a lolly shop called Mrs Groves Shop but it closed. You could buy anything there. We have a football team called the Portland Colts. I like going to see them play. I think they went good this year. You can play any sport for Portland such as football,bowls netball,cricket,touch and golf. I love Portland because it loves us. We all make it a nice place to live. Claire Jefree year 5