Lucas Heights is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 31 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Lucas Heights is located on the Woronora River, which flows north into the Georges River.

Unusually for a suburb, Lucas Heights does not contain a residential area. The residential area previously part of Lucas Heights was renamed Barden Ridge in 1996 to increase the real estate value of the area, as it would no longer be instantly associated with the HIFAR nuclear reactor.

Lucas Heights was named after John Lucas Senior, a flour miller who in 1823 was granted 150 acres (0.6 km2) on the 'head of unnamed stream into Georges River'. He built a water-driven mill for grinding corn from the Illawarra farms. Small ships sailed up the coast into Botany Bay, Georges River and the Woronora River.

Waterfall is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 38 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire. It is approximately 200 metres above sea level.

Waterfall has only six streets. Its local school has only two rooms which have kindergarten to 2nd class in one room, and 3rd class to 6th class in another. The bushland gives the small suburb a natural surrounding and walking tracks lead from it into the neighbouring national parks. To the west is a dammed lake and behind it is Mount Westmacott.

Waterfall was a town created by rail workers, who built the line from Sydney to Wollongong in the late 19th century. It is the highest point on the line, with a steep rising gradient at one end, and a falling gradient at the other end, and sidings were provided in both directions to allow freight wagons to be stowed and shunted. Waterfall derived its name from the waterfalls close to the railway station.

Miranda is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The suburb is known as a commercial centre for the southern suburbs. Miranda is 24 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the Sutherland Shire.

The Westfield Miranda shopping centre attracts many shoppers from the Sutherland Shire, the St George area and as far away as Wollongong. Miranda has a mixture of low, medium and high density residential.

Thomas Holt (1811–88) owned the land that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla. James Murphy, the manager of the Holt estate named the area after Miranda, a character in the William Shakespeare play The Tempest. In a 1921 letter, James Murphy said "the name Miranda was given to the locality by me as manager of the Holt Sutherland Company which I formed in 1881. I thought it a soft, euphonious, musical and appropriate name for a beautiful place." It is believed that the character in the play was named after Miranda de Ebro, a town in Spain.

Bangor is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bangor is located 28 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire in the area commonly called Menai. Bangor sits south of the Georges River and to the west of the Woronora River.

The name 'Bangor' was selected in 1895 by the land's owner, a farmer named Owen Jones, after his birthplace Bangor in Wales. To avoid confusion with Bangor in Tasmania, the Postmaster General's Office changed the suburb name to Menai in 1910. Another Australian Bangor is located in South Australia. Menai Bridge is a town opposite the original Bangor, on the Menai Strait in Wales. When Menai expanded, the eastern section was renamed Bangor in 1976.

As part of the modern development of Bangor, the streets were all named with an Aboriginal theme

Cronulla is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Boasting numerous surf beaches and swimming spots, the suburb attracts both tourists and Greater Sydney residents. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

Cronulla is located on a peninsula framed by Botany Bay to the north, Bate Bay to the east, Port Hacking to the south, and Gunnamatta Bay to the west. The neighbouring suburb of Woolooware lies to the west of Cronulla, and Burraneer lies to the southwest. The Kurnell peninsula, the site of the first landfall on the eastern coastline made by Captain James Cook in 1770, is reached by driving northeast out of Cronulla on Captain Cook Drive.

Cronulla is derived from Abdi , meaning ‘‘place of the pink seashells’’ in the dialect of the area's Aboriginal inhabitants, the Gweagal, who were a clan of the Tharawal (or Dharawal) tribe of Indigenous Australians. They inhabited the southern geographic areas of Sydney. The beaches were named by Surveyor Robert Dixon who surveyed here in 1827-28 and, by 1840, the main beach was still known as Karranulla. In July 1852 the schooner Venus was wrecked on the beach, which was referred to in newspaper reports as Cooranulla.

Sutherland is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland is located 30 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

There are two theories for the origin of the Sutherland name:

It is suggested that the name was taken from able seaman Forby Sutherland, who died on Captain Cook's Endeavour voyage. Sutherland Point at Kurnell is named after him, but there's no direct connection of him to the Sutherland Shire district.
Thomas Mitchell as surveyor general in 1835 named the first parish south of the Georges River as the "Parish of Southerland" (South with an "o"). But it appeared in a later government gazette spelt Sutherland, losing the significance of the name.

Thomas Holt (1811–88) purchased 13,000 acres (53 km2) in the 1860s that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla. The Sutherland area was originally heavily timbered and timber-cutting became the first industry. Holt initiated many commercial projects including timber cutting, coal mining, sheep farming and oyster farming. He built a forty-room mansion called Sutherland House in 1881 at Sylvania, on the bank of Gwawley Bay. The mansion was destroyed by fire in 1918, thought to have been deliberately lit.

Gymea is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Gymea is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. The postcode is 2227, which it shares with adjacent suburb Gymea Bay.

The Gymea Lily, Doryanthes excelsa is a 6m tall perennial that is prevalent in the area. It was named by the local Eora people and became the inspiration for the suburb's name, by government surveyor W.A.B. Geaves in 1855. The Gymea Lily has been adopted as a symbol of the area and features on the crest of many local organisations. Development in the area has eradicated most of the lilies but many can still be found, a few kilometres south, in the Royal National Park.

I live in Gymea.

Woronora is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Woronora is located 27 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

'Woronora' is an Aboriginal placename. Records show the spelling of the name has varied since it first appeared in the 19th century, the earliest being Wooloonora (Dixon, 1827), followed by Wolonora (Dixon, 1837), and Woronora (Mitchell, 1835). The name was first applied to the Woronora River, a tributary of the Georges River, before being given to a hundred, an electoral district, a local road east of the river, and finally to the suburb itself.

The following meanings have been suggested for Woronora:
'black rock' (Appleton and Appleton 1992)
'black rocks' (Walker 1974; Neve 1970)
'river-of-no-sharks' (Bolton 2000)

Variations such as 'black cliffs' and 'sharkless waters' have also been suggested by local residents.

Jannali is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Jannali is located 28 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. The majority of land use in Jannali is residential and bushland reserve, while the suburb is bisected by the north-south railway line.

Jannali is an Aboriginal word, meaning the Place of the Moon, originating from the people of the Northern Territory. It is also used as a female given name.

The area began to develop with the arrival of the railway line in 1884. However, the railway station at Jannali was not built until 1931. The department of railways paid for the construction of the railway station and ramps while the local council paid for the road bridge over the line at the southern end of the station. This attracted residents to the suburb and many more homes were built after World War II when blocks of land were offered to returned servicemen.

Heathcote is a suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Heathcote is located 36 km south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire. Heathcote is bordered by Engadine to the north and Waterfall to the south. It is bounded by The Royal National Park to the east, and Heathcote National Park to the west.

Heathcote is separated into two sections by the railway line. Heathcote East contains two of the schools and a sports oval. Heathcote West is the larger side with the majority of residents.

Heathcote was originally known as Bottle Forest. There were fourteen town allotments in Bottle Forest in 1842, in what is now Heathcote East. In 1835 Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell (1792–1855) conducted a survey of the area and named it Heathcote, in honour of an officer who had fought with him during the Peninsula Wars against Napoleon.

Burraneer is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Burraneer is 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire.

Burraneer sits on the peninsula of Burraneer Point, on the north shore of the Port Hacking estuary. Burraneer Bay forms the western border and Gunnamatta Bay the eastern border. Woolooware is the only adjacent suburb. Cronulla is located across Gunnamatta Bay. The suburbs of Dolans Bay, Port Hacking and Caringbah South are located across Burraneer Bay. The villages of Maianbar and Bundeena are located on the opposite bank of Port Hacking. Burraneer is a mostly residential suburb.

Burraneer is an Aboriginal word meaning point of the bay. It was named by Surveyor Robert Dixon in 1827, who chose many Aboriginal names for many of the bays in the area.

In 1858 Mary and Andrew Webster paid 108 pounds and 15 shillings plus a yearly peppercorn quit rent for their land here.

Kirrawee is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kirrawee is located 25 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the Sutherland Shire. Kirrawee lies between Sutherland, to the west, and Gymea and Grays Point, to the east. Kirrawee's southern border is formed by The Royal National Park, while Kareela and Jannali form the northern border.

The Sutherland Shire Council website suggests two possible origins for the name, "Kirrawee". The first possibility is that it derives from an Aboriginal word meaning 'lengthy'; the second is that it derives from a Dharawal word, "gi(a)rrawee(i)" (alternative spelling "garrawi"), which means 'place of white cockatoos' or 'sulphur-crested cockatoos'. The name was adopted in 1939 with the opening of the Sutherland-Cronulla railway line. A postal receiving office in the locality was known as 'Bladesville'. It operated from the home of Mrs Louisa Blade, was opened in 1909 and closed in 1915 when a letter delivery service commenced from the post office at Sutherland.

Lilli Pilli is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Lilli Pilli is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. There is also another Lilli Pilli in New South Wales (postcode 2536), located 12 kilometres south of Batemans Bay.

Lilli Pilli was named for the lilly pilly, the native myrtle that grew on the point. Thomas Holt (1811–88) owned most of the land that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla, including land on the point. In 1840, parish maps also showed that 20 acres (8.1 ha) of land on the point were owned by Francis Mitchell.

Taren Point is a suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 20 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. It is a small suburb surrounded by the suburbs of Sylvania Waters and Caringbah. Taren Point is on the peninsula where the Captain Cook Bridge crosses north over the Georges River to Sans Souci, in the St George area.

Taren Point was originally called Comyns Point, then Cummins Point and later Commins Point, believed to be after a local resident. The origins of Taren Point are also unclear. Thomas Holt (1811–88) owned the land that stretched from Sutherland to Cronulla and his name is commemorated with Holt Road.

There was a cane toad outbreak in Taren Point in 2010, and a population still persists.