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In colonial times, the area known today as Prince Alfred Park contained the colony's gaol and was known as 'the Gaol Green' and 'the Hanging Green.' Regular public punishments occurred there until the 1840s when the gaol moved to a new location and the area became a public…

Daughter or grand-daughter of Bungaree's wife Matora, Biddy Lewis lived on her land at Marramarra Creek until 1880.

First known to Europeans as Cleveland Paddocks, the area that became Prince Alfred Park was gazetted as a public reserve in 1865, and called after Prince Alfred during his ill-fated visit in 1868. Exhibition buildings were built in the park in 1870, lasting until 1954, and…

Part of the traditional lands of the Tharawal and Gundungurra people, Narellan Vale is a new suburb on land granted to William Howe and William Hovell in the 1810s. For much of its history, it was dairy farms.

Grotto Point became an important part of navigational safety with the erection of a lighthouse in 1910.

The foundation of the Aboriginal Legal Service in 1970 marked the beginning of a new and radical period in Aboriginal politics. It was the first Aboriginal organisation that directly challenged government institutions by offering alternate services.

The Wallumedegal clan were the traditional owners of the land that became Beecroft. The area was part of the Field of Mars common proclaimed in 1804, and remained common land until 1874. Beecroft was subdivided in 1887 after the railway went through, and sold to middle-class…

First thought of in the 1870s, the first Spit Bridge was not built until nearly 50 years later, replacing a punt across Middle Harbour. A second bridge was built in the 1950s but the crossing remains a transport bottleneck.

Scotland Island was granted to Andrew Thompson, a Scottish convict, in 1810. He set up salt works, and built ships there from 1806. The island remained rural until 1906 when it was subdivided, and holiday homes built there. From the 1960s more permanent residents lived there…

Built on Dharug country, the Minto Communist party camp functioned as a training school and recreational camp for nearly 50 years before passing to Tranby Aboriginal Cooperative College with the dispersal of Communist party assets in the 1990s.

On 14 February 1916 soldiers based in the Australian Imperial Force training camps at Casula and Liverpool rioted, first in Liverpool, then at Central Station and in the city. The riot caused widespread damage, the death of one soldier-recruit, injuries to seven, multiple…

The Friendship was one of the six convict transports in the First Fleet. She was scuttled and sunk on her return voyage after becoming stuck on sandbanks off the coast of Borneo.

The Borrowdale, along with the other storeships of the First Fleet, took on board two years' worth of provisions and stores for the new colony including 'implements of husbandry, clothing for the troops and convicts and other necessaries'.

A natural bathing place used by Aboriginal people, this site has had a series of swimming pools built on it since European settlement. Since 1968 the pool has commemorated one of Australia's greatest swimmers, Andrew (Boy) Charlton.

One of the few European buildings recognised as an Aboriginal heritage site, the Australian Hall was conserved because of its importance as the site for the 1938 Day of Mourning.

Temperance advocate, evangelist and charity worker, George Ardill was absolutely certain of the validity of his ideas about redemption and rescue of women and children. His later work as a member of the Aboriginal Protection Board, accompanied by similar certainty, led…

Cammeraygal country until the 1820s, Artarmon became an area of market gardens and orchards, gradually becoming more closely settled. By the end of the nineteenth century, brickmaking was established, and the railway line brought people and commercial development from 1890.…

Inaccessible to Europeans until the 1860s, the forested area later called Mount Wilson was known to Aboriginal people for generations. The building of the Zigzag railway to Lithgow made Mount Wilson suddenly less remote and land sales coincided with the opening of the railway…

Originally the country of the Wallumedegal, Tennyson (later Tennyson Point) was highly regarded as a vantage point for the regattas and world championship rowing that took place on the Parramatta River.