The western Sydney suburb of Bidwill has gone from a community where most residents worked, to one where more than 90 per cent are living on Centrelink payments.

For many of its residents, what started as a short stay in public housing has turned into years and generations of unemployment and welfare reliance.

"When this suburb was built, it was built for working families," Paul Vevers, from Housing NSW, said.

"What's happened since that time is the clients or tenants that we work with have got more and more complex needs.

About Bidwill Located 43 km west of the Sydney CBD

Located 43 km west of the Sydney CBD Named after the early settler and botanist, John Carne Bidwill

Named after the early settler and botanist, John Carne Bidwill 40 per cent of the population is aged under 17

40 per cent of the population is aged under 17 14 per cent is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander

14 per cent is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander One of 11 suburbs making up Mount Druitt

"Now instead of most people working, almost nobody works in this area.

"There aren't role models for young people here.

"A 16 or 17-year-old girl or boy if they leave school, the rite of passage for them is that the parents would take them down to Centrelink.

"In other communities parents might take them down to their first job."

Bidwill sprung up in the mid-1960s with the construction of one of the largest concentrations of public housing in New South Wales.

Pam Carr grew up in Bidwill and has since become a social worker in the suburb.

"The house was brand new so we felt quite posh," she said.

"There were lots and lots of us, families in similar situations; a fair few kids, Mum and Dad. Dad went to work."

Sorry, this video has expired Social Worker Pam Carr says living in Bidwell is no longer fun ( Philippa McDonald )

Ms Carr has watched enormous transformation over the decades.

"I don't see Bidwill as fun anymore; it's full of sad stories now and a lot of drug use, violence, mental illness and poverty," she said.

"I would probably visit five to 10 people a day. Most of those homes are poorly kept, poor nutritional food in the cupboards, children not at school, nobody working.

"Funnily enough everyone has Foxtel and that's on in the background."

State Labor MP Richard Amery, who has worked in the electorate for 30 years, says Bidwill was a unique public housing development estate.

"Houses built by the then Housing Commission were built on super lots," he said.

"Rather than having one house on one block of land, or one deed, there was a cluster of houses on a deed with a couple of acres of land.

"It was a massive building program. They bought up many square miles of land and built these super suburbs.

"It still is the youngest electorate in New South Wales."

Bidwill makes headlines with riots

Bidwill gained notoriety in October 1981 after widespread media coverage of the so-called Bidwill riots.

The Daily Telegraph's headline read: "Savage Night of Violence: 1,000 Kids in Wild Rampage".

The newspaper reported that "1,000 boys and girls from rival schools fought a bloody, no-holds-barred battle that held a Sydney suburb in terror."

Media coverage was blamed for fuelling a conflict that had reportedly started as a fight between two girls, over a boy.

Some television channels sent helicopters to cover the incident.

"It did focus attention on the inability of the suburb to provide recreational activities for the students," Mr Amery said.

"The first reaction was the building of those community centres which have had a chequered career themselves."

In January 2007, 26 years later, Bidwill made the headlines again.

Nineteen youths were arrested for reportedly engaging in a "one-night war", using weapons ranging from machetes to tree branches.

This so-called riot occurred on Bidwill Reserve. It used to have playing fields, netball courts, change rooms and a pavilion.

Today a couple of floodlights are all that remains. There are no goal posts or buildings and the field is in a state of neglect. A couple of homeless men camp under a tree nearby.

The Bidwill Reserve has fallen into a state of neglect.

Bidwill now: Centrelink community

There are 2,500 people living in 800 public housing dwellings in Bidwill and 93 per cent of public housing tenants rely on Centrelink for an income.

Back when Bidwill was first settled, 85 per cent of public housing tenants had a job.

Mr Vevers says there is immense social disadvantage.

Sharon Young with her grandchildren Kahli Sullivan, 4, and Mariah Sullivan, 1. ( ABC News: Mohamed Taha )

"It's a dense population of people who are very poor and often have other complex needs," he said.

When the ABC visited Cupania Crescent in Bidwill, 50-year-old Sharon Young was looking after her grandchildren; four-year-old Kahli and one-year-old Mariah Sullivan.

Ms Young says people do not choose to live in Bidwill.

"My brother's been in his house 10 years. My son has been here for two," she said.

"But I think it's because people don't want to live in Bidwill, there's a lot of free homes here so it's the first place they put you.

"It's either take it or wait, and a lot of people don't have a choice because they want a roof over their heads."

And she says there is a stigma that comes with being from Bidwill.

"If you're from around here, then they think you're uncivilised or a trouble-maker or a thief. That's why we don't get no jobs around here," she said.

"It's not just Bidwill, it's the whole Mt Druitt. Bidwill's got a bad name because of the violence and fighting.

"Police are always patrolling around here because they think it's the biggest trouble area.

"I suppose if a lot of people had jobs they wouldn't be here, they'd be where they want to live. But at the moment, it's what you can take."

An overgrown yard in front of a house in Bidwill. ( ABC News: Mohamed Taha )

No supermarket in renovated shopping centre

The Bidwill Shopping Centre has undergone a $3 million renovation, but there is no supermarket: the owners have not been able to find a tenant for years. There is just one shop: a takeaway shop.

"Growing up in Bidwill that shopping centre was a bit of a hub, there was the big supermarket," Ms Carr recalls.

"It was still a poor place, everybody bought Black and Gold then, but there was a newsagent and the doctor and the chemist and takeaway shop.

"It was kind of fun. You’d go there after school and before school and get hot chips. But now it's a shell."

The Bidwill Hotel's drive-in bottle shop fills the gap for life's essentials, including bread, milk, eggs and nappies, all alongside wine, beer, spirits and stands of lollies.

The owner and publican declines the ABC's request for an interview but allows a short visit without the glare of our television camera.

Uniting Church deacon John Dasey says it is not ideal that parents have to drag the kids to a bottle shop, and it is also expensive.

"That's not saying anything against the bottle shop, just the reality that they can only carry limited stock and naturally it's more expensive," he said.

"It's very much a compromised position."

Long-time resident Amanda German has lived in Bidwill for 30 years.

"We need a shopping centre. A lot of people prefer to stay in the community, work in the community but they have to travel. So it would be good if there are more jobs around," she said.

Drugs and alcohol blamed for domestic violence

Bidwill mother Amanda German is a longtime resident of the suburb. ( ABC News: Mohamed Taha )

Ms German knows about domestic violence.

Her daughter made the news in June last year, when she was allegedly stabbed by her partner.

"In this house and it was pretty scary. So I've experienced that first hand," she said.

"She's still got a blood clot in her head, a bleed on the brain, a broken nose, a broken eye socket. The house was actually a crime scene.

"So I've experienced it. There's a lot of domestic violence in Bidwill. That's basically because of the drugs."

When it comes to child protection notifications and domestic violence notifications, there are more reports than ever before in Bidwill.

In 2011/2012 there were 97 reports of domestic violence. A year later the figure has increased to 136.

The number of notifications relating to drug or alcohol use by a carer has also increased dramatically.

In 2011/2012 there were 63 reports of drug or alcohol use by a carer. A year later the figure has increased to 104.

"As I have got more involved in looking at some of those cases, it's an absolutely overwhelming feature that domestic violence has increased here significantly," Mr Vevers said.

"You've got to look at the growth in alcohol outlets alongside that.

"I don't know scientifically or statistically if they're related, but common sense tells you if [you've] got so much alcohol there is going to be a problem with domestic violence."

The NSW Minister for Family and Community Services, Pru Goward, concedes that public housing has failed many people and has signalled plans for a major overhaul, statewide.

"Bidwill is struggling and Bidwill needs to choose to change... We don't want to be sitting here in another 20 years looking at these terrible statistics and saying nothing has altered," Ms Goward said.

"We have to have expectations that you change. If you are going to have the privilege of public housing then we need to see you commit to changing your life.

"Tough love means saying to the community, we need your kids to go to school not hanging around the streets, we need your drug and alcohol problems to be addressed so that you don’t need to rob the local supermarket."