RoseyGirl

The street is nice and quiet and the residents pretty much keep to themselves. The homes are all older style but well kept, it's a nice area. There are a lot of tall gum trees around which give it a lovely bushy outlook, but they also drop all kinds of nasty gum and seeds all over the washing, car, etc, as well as the threat of falling branches.
We lived near the bottom of the hill and found the air quality in winter to be abysmal, lots of the homes in the street and surrounds have woodfires and you quite literally drive down into the smoke haze which sits in the basin at the bottom of the hill near Kira street. Absolutely dreadful for asthmatics and others with breathing disorders.
Traffic is nice and quiet in the street itself, but it could sometimes be awkward getting onto Windsor Road, or back in via Rifle Range Road, especially in peak hour. What is good is the loop up to Ventura Rd where there are traffic lights.
The small shopping centre at the top of the hill has an awesome Chinese takeaway, but as most of the street is in a ditch, really, so television reception is pretty bad without fancy boosting devices or really tall aerials.

Northmead is 26kms from the Sydney CBD and was established way back in 1889 when the Government house property (starting in Parramatta Park) was subdivided into North Meadow and West Meadow by the British Settlers.
It's a lovely suburb nestled amongst lots of bushy pockets, largely due to the gullies created by extensive sandstone quarrying that occurred here in the 1800s. I can attest to the abundance of sandstone here, evidenced by the quantity we had to remove when we built our house!
Northmead shops on Campbell St have all the conveniences a town needs, including restaurants as well as the staples, and it's only a short drive to either Winston Hills Plaza or Stocklands Mall at Baulkham hills for the bigger retailers.
Northmead sits across two council areas, The Hills Shire on the eastern side of Windsor road, and Parramatta City Council on the Western side. The Hills section consists of lots of streets in loops from Windsor Road, which means they're mainly local traffic. The downside to this is during the am peak hour when the main road is reduced to one lane northbound and all the traffic going onto Windsor road is funnelled up and down the back streets to the few traffic lights.
Northmead Public School is a thriving community in itself, where parents, students and teachers create a wonderful caring environment. The investment that the locals have in the school is tremendous, and families who attend take great pride in it.
There are green areas with playgrounds, and access to bush trails for a nature walk on both sides of Windsor Rd. The Water Dragon Walk follows the creek bed between Hammers Rd and Moxhams Road, as well as the less well known track in the catchment area which takes you to Northmead Dam, accessible from Rifle Range Road. Stay away from here in rain though, it fills up very quickly!
Buses run regularly down Windsor road to Parramatta or up to Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill, and it's only a hop-skip and a jump to the M2 for the buses there to the city. The opening of the M2 westbound on-ramp in 2012 makes Northmead at the apex of the arterial roads to head just about anywhere in the city.
I have owned in the area for 8 years and love everything about Northmead. The people here foster a real community spirit that is rare so close to a 'city' but without giving up any of the city conveniences.

Fletcher Street is a lovely place to live, so close to the shops where there's everything you need, great butcher, brilliant growers market, supermarket, takeaway, deli and bottle shop, restaurant...and much more.
The street is quiet all day except for school drop off and pick up when there are more cars and a few buses in the street. It can be a queue to get out onto Windsor road at these times but there's hardly any traffic at other times.
Older homes are starting to be renovated and knocked down for modern new homes in the street and around the area, increasing the value of surrounding neighbourhood. People are friendly but not nosy.
The school oval runs along part of this street giving it a lovely green feel and look, which will never be lost.
I'm so glad we live here.