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Home , Elizabeth Farm, Experiment Farm Cottage, Hambledon Cottage, James Ruse, Parramatta

TALES OF THE SECOND SETTLEMENT With a long history that you can still see today, explore by spending time in each of its historical precincts By Jasmine O’Donoghue

arramatta is a place of THE JEWEL IN P stories. The city was originally inhabited by the THE CROWN World Heritage–listed Burramattagal people, a clan of Parramatta Park is one of the , and has thousands ’s most historically of years of Indigenous history. significant public parks. It is one It’s the second settlement to be OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE of 11 sites in the country which established by Australia’s British collectively tell the story of the colonists and is just 10 months Parramatta Park, cnr Pitt & Macquarie Sts, 9635 8149, nationaltrust.org.au/ largest forced migration in the younger than . Today’s nsw/OldGovernmentHouse world. The park is home to Old Parramatta is an eclectic mix of Government House which, for history, people and food, with Open: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am–4pm. seven decades, was the NSW significant landmarks speckled Last tour at 3:30pm. Governors’ country residence. throughout the buzzing streets. Wander the grounds or enter the The stories that make up how house to learn about the first 10 life once was can be divided governors. Parramatta Park also into four fascinating precincts. encloses the Governor’s Dairy, Pick and choose between the an 1822 Observatory and a 1904 precincts, or for the full narrative, Boer War memorial. pack all four into one captivating Parramatta Park is the day. Each should take roughly PARRAMATTA PARK perfect place to spend a sunny two hours to explore, so no Enter cnr Macquarie & Pitt Sts, afternoon. Pack a picnic lunch matter how long you have in Parramatta or Queens Rd, Westmead, 9895 7500, parrapark.com.au and sit in the grounds – there the city, you’re sure to discover are plenty of spots with a lovely something fascinating. Open: Main gates open 6am–6pm. view, and several leafy escapes. Westmead gate opens weekdays 10am–3pm. Weekends and public Alternatively, Lachlan’s is the Clockwise from top left: Old Government restaurant that sits within Old House (OGH) interiors, and furnishings, holidays gate opens 6am–6pm Boer War Memorial, a portrait of Queen (gate closes at 8pm during daylight- Government House, or there’s Victoria at OGH, local wildlife, the Dairy saving hours). the café at The Gatehouse for Cottage, OGH entry. a meal or high tea.

10 DISCOVER 11 THE BIRTHPLACE OF AGRICULTURE Hidden in a typical suburban street lies , the oldest surviving European dwelling in Australia. It’s located towards the south of Parramatta, near Harris Park, and there are several sites of its type in the area. The early ELIZABETH FARM colonial bungalow was home to the influential 70 Alice St, Rosehill, 9635 9488, and controversial family of John and Elizabeth sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/ elizabeth-farm Macarthur, pioneers of the Australian wool industry. Elizabeth Farm is a hands-on museum, Open: Wednesday to Sunday meaning there are no locked or fragile 10am–4pm and daily during pieces of furniture, allowing visitors to sit down NSW school holidays. in front of the drawing room fire, relax on the and explore the house as if it were their own. The Elizabeth Farm Tearoom is a great place to relax over a cuppa while the kids try their hand at colonial games such as quoits, hoop and stick, cup and ball, knuckles and croquet. A few hundred metres away is . Built in 1824 by John Macarthur as a second house on Elizabeth Farm Estate to HAMBLEDON COTTAGE accommodate family and friends, today it features 63 Hassall St, 9635 6924, original furniture of the period. The other nearby parramattahistorical.org.au site is Experiment Farm, sitting on one of the most important parcels of land in the founding Open: Thursday to Sunday 11am–4pm and any day for groups of 15 or more of the colony. It is the site of Australia’s first land by appointment. grant, where proved in 1791 that a new settler could farm the land and be self-sufcient. The Indian-style bungalow there today was built by Surgeon John Harris and is fitted out with the largest collection of colonial furniture of its kind in Australia. Take a guided tour or browse the permanent display in the cellar.

EXPERIMENT FARM COTTAGE 9 Ruse St, Harris Park 9635 5655 nationaltrust.org.au/places/ experiment-farm-cottage

Open: Wednesday to Sunday Clockwise from main: The interior 10:30am–3:30pm. Last tour at 3pm. at Elizabeth Farm, the patio Available for group bookings Mondays of , and Tuesdays. Hambledon Cottage.

12 DISCOVER 13 This image: The Female Orphan School is now part of Western EDUCATION TO Sydney University and home ENLIGHTENMENT to the Whitlam Institute. The Female Orphan School Building is of immense historical significance. Commissioned by Governor Macquarie in 1813, it was the colony’s first three-storey building and has since built up many layers of history. Upon opening, it prepared orphaned, convict and Indigenous females for a life as domestic servants. From the 1880s it spent a century as a mental hospital and it is now part of Western Sydney University. One wing is dedicated to the Whitlam Institute, which records the legacy of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and displays a model of his Sydney ofce, including his actual furnishings, books and other efects. Adjacent to the institute is the Margaret Whitlam Galleries, presenting temporary exhibitions on Australia’s social and cultural life.

THE WHITLAM INSTITUTE AT THE FEMALE ORPHAN SCHOOL Building EZ, cnr James Ruse Dr and Victoria Rd, Rydalmere, 9685 9210 westernsydney.edu.au/fos “UPON OPENING, THE FEMALE ORPHAN SCHOOL PREPARED ORPHANED, CONVICT AND INDIGENOUS Open: Thursday and Friday 10am–4pm. Group bookings are available on FEMALES FOR A LIFE AS DOMESTIC SERVANTS. IT’S request throughout the week. NOW PART OF WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY.”

DISCOVER 15 From left to right: St John’s Cathedral, St John’s Cemetery, Brislington, a Lancer Barracks display, Lennox Bridge.

VILLAGE LIFE TO CITY LIFE Lancer Barracks is the longest continuous Today Brislington gives a “now and then” look at The history of Parramatta snakes through several military installation on the Australian mainland. medical science and hospital care in Parramatta, significant landmarks which are scattered within Several original buildings from 1820 remain on the displaying artefacts from early colonial days and the city grid. The walls of St John’s Cathedral hold site and today the barracks is home to the Linden equipment and instruments used through time. two hundred years of history and religion. Church Museum. The museum documents the history of The Former tells a moving story services have been held at the site since the late the Lancers and displays original writings from of the first and busiest of the colonial female 1790s, making the cathedral Australia’s oldest Banjo Patterson, along with weapons seized from factories. It was a place of assignment, a marriage continuous place of worship. It boasts impressive enemy soldiers and vintage armoured vehicles. bureau, a factory, an asylum and a prison. architecture and features convict-made twin towers Ex-convict John Hodges constructed the two-storey The walk tracks a historic river built in 1818. St John’s Cemetery is the oldest Georgian house of Brislington in 1821 using money landscape, from Governor Phillip’s 1788 landing existing European burial ground in Australia, won at the nearby Woolpack Inn. More than 35 years point, the 1839 Lennox Bridge, Parramatta Park and the final resting place of some of the colony’s later the Brown family took up residence and three and Old Government House. earliest settlers. generations practised medicine in the building. • •

1) Lancer Barracks 2) Hambledon Cottage ST JOHN’S CATHEDRAL ST JOHN’S CEMETERY NSW LANCER BARRACKS BRISLINGTON3) Brislington MEDICALMedical and FORMER4) St FEMALE Johnʼs Cemetery FACTORY LENNOX BRIDGE 195 Church St, 9891 0700 1 O’Connell St AND MUSEUM AND NURSING Nursing MUSEUM museum Fleet St, Adjacent to 349–351 Church St stjohnscathedral.org.au 2 Smith St, 0405 482 814 Cnr George & Marsden Sts 0447 189 137 Guided tours for visitors are lancers.org.au 4751 4360, brislington.net parramattafemalefactoryfriends. Lennox Bridge was completed in 1839 Open: Weekday guided tours available by appointment with com.au and was designed by , 10am–2pm and large groups by St John’s Cemetery Trust. Look Open: Sundays 10am–4pm and by Open: Thursday 10:30am–2pm and then Superintendent of Bridges for prior appointment. Sunday services out for Sydney suburb namesakes appointment on any day for groups by appointment at other times for Open: Guided tours arranged by NSW. It replaced two earlier wooden in English: 8am, 9:30am, 11am, 7pm; D’Arcy Wentworth of Wentworthville, of 10 or more. private groups. appointment. bridges on the same site. Cantonese: 9:15am; Farsi: 5pm; John Harris of Harris Park and Mary Mandarin: 11am and 2pm. Kelly of Kellyville.

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5) Parramatta Park 6) Former Female Factory 7) Lennox Bridge