Kieran Scott

Having lived in Richmond from 13-20 years old, and again for a small amount of time in my late 20’s, I feel I am allowed to comment.
Richmond is a small-medium sized town at the end of the railway line, which boasts McDonalds as the main feature. The demographic I’d say is low-middle income earners and very Anglo.
The railway runs every 30min (peak) or 1h (off peak). There is no express service to the city, as there isn’t dual rail lines till you get to Riverstone/Schofields, so a trip to the CBD will take you 1h 20m (although regularly delayed).
As kids living in the Hawkesbury are fairly isolated from large malls (Closest is Rouse Hill or Penrith), theatres (Richmond has a small, renovated twin cinema from the 1900’s), attractions, and dining precincts, I feel boredom (mixed with some regions of low income/education families) may be behind why the McDonald’s carpark, the train station and the cricket oval are littered with loitering gangs of smoking minors in tracksuits, and often sans shoes.
Transport is a joke.
There are a few school options - some private (especially towards Penrith/the Nepean) - which have a decent wrap.
Food options in Richmond are usually small family businesses: Thai, Chinese, Pizza, Indian, 4 pubs, several cafes, McDonald’s, KFC and a small food court in the Woolies marketplace that’s open during the day.
Traffic includes a road to Penrith, two roads back east (Richmond Rd into Blacktown and Windsor Rd into Windsor) and Bells Line of Road up the mountains. Richmond Rd and Bells Line of Road are disgustingly packed during peak afternoon time. It jams up Richmond and can sometimes take 30min+ to drive the 1.5km into North Richmond. Recent attempts to create a very short merging lane where people from Penrith way can merge just before North Richmond has just caused more people from Richmond to take a short detour to this in an effort just cut in line.
Driving to the CBD takes 1h 15m completely off peak, with a spend of $18.44 in tolls (off peak prices, one way).
Affordable - yet old - housing is probably this areas only pro. The town hasn’t changed in 20 years, except for the addition of a speed camera.