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Home to Aboriginal people until at least 1828, the island called Mullet Island by Arthur Phillip was leased to Andrew Thompson, salt maker, in the 1790s. In the 1860s it was bought by the Dangar family, becoming Dangar Island officially in 1922, by which time it had been sold…

Initiated by by Pearl Gibbs and Faith Bandler, the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship included non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people in its campaign for Indigenous rights.

Priest, scientist and adventurer, François-Joseph Receveur, later also known as'Père Laurent Receveur', was wounded in Samoa in December 1787 and died at Botany Bay in February 1788, becoming the first Catholic priest and the first scientist buried in Australia. His grave has…

A bushland suburb that expanded rapidly with improved road and rail access, Jannali remains an affordable commuter village.

Traditional land of the Dharug people, Agnes Banks was where Europeans first saw a platypus, and was the home of Yellomundi. Land was granted to Europeans from the 1800s, who farmed the rich river flats, but were frequently flooded out. Orchards were planted, and dairy farms…

Converted from boxing auditorium to popular vaudeville theatre, the 'Nash' reinvented itself again in the 1930s as a cinema when economic depression and the popularity of film forced further adaptation.

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…

Parramatta's General Hospital for convicts was located on Marsden Street overlooking the Parramatta River from 1789 to 1818. Initially two thatched sheds that were known as the Tent Hospital, these were replaced in 1792 by a Brick Hospital. However, conditions continued…

Inhabited by the Terramerragal people until Europeans arrived, the area that became North Turramurra was first called Irish town. Suburban development was slow, because of limited transport and services, until after World War II.

Grants in Roseville were given to Europeans from the 1820s. Orchards and timber were important industries until the railway spurred subdivision and development from the 1890s. By the 1920s there was a thriving suburb with services, churches and schools.

A soldier and policeman, George Poole served in Balmain in the 1910s and 1920s.

A community theatre in a community hall, Marian Street Theatre has managed to provide a varied theatrical offering in a suburban setting over many decades.

Rich camping grounds for the Kameygal people lined the river where Oatley was later built on the land granted to James Oatley, a convict clockmaker. Fishermen, oyster farmers and railway workers settled in the early subdivision after 1881, but it was not till the 1900s that…

Formed by a dam built in 1855-56, Lake Parramatta submerged much of the evidence of the long habitation of the area by the Burramattagal people. The dam was technically advanced, and the water used for Parramatta's supply, first using water carts and later reticulated.…