Homebush

Thanks to international television coverage of the 2000 Olympics, just about everyone in the world has "visited" Homebush, one of Sydney's older, established western suburbs, about 15km due west of the CBD.

And the games changed the suburb forever, of course. It used to be just another working-class, industrial suburb off Parramatta Road, sandwiched between a huge abattoir and the extraordinary Rookwood Cemetery, where more than one million people are buried.

The cemetery is still there, of course (and well worth a visit for its historical significance) but the abattoir and other industrial complexes have disappeared in favour of the sports centre that will now define Homebush's character.

Homebush is now also home to Australia"s greatest fair, the Royal Agricultural Society"s Easter Show. For 120 years the show drew huge crowd"s to the RAS"s Showgrounds in Randwick, but the society moved to Homebush in 1998 following the controversial sale of its traditional headquarters alongside the Sydney Cricket Ground to Rupert Murdoch"s Fox Studios.