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Named for Varro Ville, the country estate of Robert Townson, Varroville remained a rural retreat well into the twentieth century, with dairy farming the main economic activity.

Minto Heights is a new suburb based on the old village of East Minto, which was based on small mixed and dairy farms in the nineteenth century, though most were gone by the 1950s. Zoned as regional open space, the area has not been densely developed, and has become an elite…

A Dharawal man, Gogi met with Governor Macquarie at the Cowpastures in 1810. In 1816, the governor gave him a 'King Plate', identifying him as 'King of the Georges River'.

Dharug country before the Europeans came, Cherrybrook was created out of West Pennant Hills. It was named after the Harrison orchard, planted on the land cleared for the Castle Hill Government Farm. From the 1940s the orchards were broken up and sold. Further subdivision took…

Shirley Beiger was a fashion model who shot and killed her lover, Arthur Griffith, outside Chequers Nightclub in 1954. She was tried for murder and acquitted. Her trial gained significant national media attention at the time.

Mr George Bates was born in 1912 and spent most of his adult life in Liverpool. He was interviewed in 1986 for the 'Looking Back at Liverpool: An Oral History of the Liverpool Region 1900-1960 ' project. Here he remembers a carnival held to raise money for a local…

The first track east to South Head followed the path Aboriginal people had travelled for thousands of years, but soon became a cleared road and later a paved street.

Cadigal country until large grants were given to settlers in the early colony, Lewisham remained timbered and rural until the mid-nineteenth century. Its Catholic church, cemetery and hospital dominated one side of the suburb, and were the site of an air crash in 1946 when…

Wallumedegal country until the Europeans arrived, the land was granted and sold to settlers, with William Bennett building Meadowbank House in 1835. When the railway linked Strathfield and Hornsby in 1886, Meadowbank was subdivided, attracting professionals who commuted to…

The Woodford Academy, a National Trust property at Woodford, is the oldest surviving group of buildings in the Blue Mountains and one of the largest nineteenth century inn complexes in Australia. Starting as an inn in 1834, the buildings have been adapted and repurposed as a…

Cammeraygal land, Naremburn still contains shell middens in Flat Rock Creek reserve. The town was built in stages from 1853, and grew after the trams reached it in 1896.

Core territory of the Burramatta clan of the Darug people, the land that became Parramatta Park was the site of the first successful farm in the colony, and became the government domain in Parramatta. Since 1858, the park has been set aside for public use and it remains an…

Asquith's early settlement was based on timber and orcharding. Subdivision followed the construction of a railway station in 1915, and Asquith benefitted from the postwar boom in housing and industry.

Designed to hold 12,000 visitors, the Bondi Pavilion was part of an ambitious improvement scheme for Bondi Beach during the 1920s. Hugely popular and well used during the 1930s, the pavilion fell into decline by the 1960s and was only saved in the 1970s by the conversion of…

Berowra Heights was created out of Berowra in 1973.

Built on Cadigal or Biddigal/Birrabirragal land, Bronte grew up on the subdivided estate of Bronte House, completed in 1845. In the late 1880s land was resumed for the park and the beach became public land for recreation. Trams brought bathers and picnickers but Bronte…

Traditional country of the Toongagal and Weymaly clans, the land that became Seven Hills was granted to settlers before 1820, and the original forest became farms, orchards and small farms by the 1860s. The district was famous for its oranges and stone fruit, and in the early…

The Parramatta and Black Town Native Institutions existed from 1814 till 1829 as part of a campaign initially led by Governor Lachlan Macquarie and designed to inculcate European ideas of 'civilisation', commerce and Christianity into Aboriginal people and turn them into…

Killara's first European settlement was a convict timber-getting camp established in 1805. In 1821 land was granted to settlers who continued to clear timber and then farm, but Killara remained remote because of bad roads. The railway enabled closer settlement from 1899, and…