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The Dictionary of Sydney
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View at Rose Hill Port Jackson c1791

View at Rose Hill Port Jackson c1791

From the collections of the

State Library of New South Wales

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Governor Phillip and the Eora Parramatta Phillip’s Table: Food in the early Sydney settlement The Crescent The road west

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Parramatta Rosehill

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The Crescent

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State Library of New South Wales

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.

The road west

The first road out of Sydney town led to the farming settlement at Parramatta, and this western gateway to the city retained its importance as the suburbs spread west towards the Blue Mountains.

The Crescent

Governor Phillip established Australia's first inland settlement, Parramatta, on a site called 'The Crescent' an area of flat alluvial ground contained by a bend in the river in the Burramattagal's traditional hunting grounds. The first Government House in Parramatta stood within The Crescent, and later the Governor's Dairy. The area was redeveloped in 2014 to host public events.

Governor Phillip and the Eora

What was Governor Arthur Phillip's relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region? Phillip's policies, actions and responses have tended to be seen as a proxy for the Europeans in Australia as whole, just as his friend, the Wangal warrior Woolarawarre Bennelong’s allegedly tragic life has for so long personified the fate of Aboriginal people since 1788. To fully imagine those early years, we must see them through the twin lenses of British and Eora perspective and experience to glimpse what was happening, and why. This allows a nuanced and complex view, and the banishment once and for all the notion that there can be only one 'right' story.

Phillip’s Table: Food in the early Sydney settlement

In the days of the early settlement, the governor's table was a place for administration, negotiation, revelation and celebration. What can we discover about this period in our history from a gastronomic perspective, and what does Phillip's table reveal about life at Government House?

Parramatta

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Western suburb built on the land of the Burramattagal people. Sydney's second European settlement, it began as a government farm in 1788 and has many heritage listed sites. It is now the commercial hub of Greater Western Sydney.

Rosehill

Industrial and residential suburb on eastern edge of Parramatta. Site of John Macarthur's Elizabeth Farm, it was subdivided in 1880 and Rosehill Racecourse opened in 1885. River frontage and rail connections made land east of the racecourse attractive to manufacturers.

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The Crescent

Alluvial flat within Parramatta Park which was once a billabong formed by the Parramatta River.

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