 miranda is a suburb in southern sydney, in the state of new south wales, australia. miranda is located 24 kilometres south of the sydney central business district, in the sutherland shire. miranda has a mixture of low, medium and high density residential and is known as a commercial centre for the southern suburbs. miranda's westfield shopping centre attracts many shoppers from the sutherland shire, the st george area and as far away as wollongong. ==history== thomas holt (1811â88) 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.http://www.sutherland.nsw.gov.au/ssc/rwpattach.nsf/viewasattachmentpersonal/shire_placenames_20041008.pdf/$file/shire_placenames_20041008.pdf history of sutherland shire placenames early australian explorer gregory blaxland was promised a significant parcel of land in the area as a reward for discovering a passage through the blue mountains. he had not selected his parcel by 1816, when he chose to sell that promise to john connell for Â£250. however, in 1831 he also selected a parcel of land and claimed it under the original promise of reward, at which connell stepped forward to claim the land. the matter was taken to court, where connell was recognised as the owner. in the 1860s the parcel was sold to holt, who planned a sheep and cattle farm. the plan failed but the fertile ground was leased by market gardeners instead. by the 1920s, steam trams operated between cronulla and sutherland, via 
Suburbs_of_Sydney