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The Dictionary of Sydney
Kass, Terry

Kass, Terry

Author

Terry Kass is a professional historian in Sydney

Auburn as Author

Auburn Botanic Gardens as Author

Liberty Plains as Author

Lidcombe as Author

Old Toongabbie and Toongabbie as Author

Parramatta as Author

Silverwater as Author

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Auburn

Built on Dharug country, Auburn developed early industries of timber-getting and brickmaking but became an industrial powerhouse after the railway arrived. Postwar immigration has made Auburn one of Sydney's most multicultural areas.

Auburn Botanic Gardens

A former dump along the Duck River bank, the Auburn Botanic Gardens were designed by Eric Black, chief engineer of Auburn Council. They include a Japanese garden, native landscapes and a lake.

Liberty Plains

Wangal country for thousands of years, land in the area that became known as Liberty Plains was granted to settlers from 1793. The area included land that has since become the suburbs of Lidcombe, Auburn, Newington and Homebush Bay. Population grew slowly, and in the 1830s, highway robberty was still happening in this rural area. The name Liberty Plains fell out of use during the nineteenth century.

Lidcombe

Standing on Dharug land, Lidcombe was settled by 1828 with ex-convicts and free settlers on small grants. With the railway, stockyards and abbatoirs, and the large cemetery, prosperity came to what was then Rookwood. In the twentieth century, industrial development and decline, and new migration have changed the face of the suburb.

Old Toongabbie and Toongabbie

Traditional country of the Darug people, Toongabbie was settled as early as 1792 and quickly became an important farming centre, worked by convicts. Roads and railways shaped the town's growth, as it was increasingly integrated into Sydney's western suburbs.

Parramatta

Named for its traditional owners, the Burramattagal, Parramatta was the site of the second European settlement in Sydney, and an early successful farm. Until the 1850s many governors preferred to live in Parramatta Government House. The railway arrived in 1857 and the town became prosperous, with its own suburbs by the 1870s, business and industrial districts, and large medical and educational institutions.

Silverwater

Wangal country before the Europeans came, the area that became Silverwater was part of a grant made to John Blaxland in 1807, and stayed in the family until 1860. It was broken up into small farms, and later residential blocks, but dairies remained into the 1930s. Industrial development took place along the river from the 1900s, and some of this land has since become Wilson Park.