Emu Plains is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Emu Plains is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 58 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
Emu Plains is on the western side of the Nepean River, located at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
History
Aboriginal culture
Prior to European settlement, what is now Emu Plains was on the border of the Western Sydney-based Darug people and the Southern Highlands-based Gandangara people, whose land extended into the Blue Mountains. The local Darug people were known as the Mulgoa who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. They lived in huts made of bark called 'gunyahs', hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants.
European settlement
The first British explorers to visit the area surveyed Emu Plains in August 1790 led by Watkin Tench, and named it Emu Island after emus they sighted on the land and in the mistaken belief that the land was actually on an island in the Nepean River. It was first referred to by its current name by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 15 April 1814, when he toured the island also realising that it was not an island but a plain that occasionally flooded giving the appearance of an island. When William Cox started building his road over the Blue Mountains from there, The Cox's Road started work at Emu plains on 18 July 1814. A government farm with convict labour was established in 1813 with 1326 convicts working on growing local agriculture. It closed down in 1833 and the land was Gazetted and sold to establishment the village of Emu Plains.Emu Ferry Post Office opened on 1 April 1863 and was renamed Emu Plains in 1882.The removal of river-stones from the Nepean River for concrete and road-base was begun by the Emu and Prospect Gravel and Road Metal Company in the 1880s. A railway siding, which was to be ultimately expanded into a short branch, was first laid in from the Main Western Line at Emu Plains in 1884. Railway operations, which included their own locomotives, continued until 1967, after when only a siding, shunted by Government trains, remained. All railway operations ceased in 1993.Emu Plains has a number of landmark buildings:
The railway station is a notable building of brick and sandstone, with Tudor chimneys, built in 1883. It is unusual for railway stations because it has two storeys; it has a Local Government Heritage Listing.
Emu Hall is a substantial home by the Nepean River. It was built in 1851 by Toby Ryan (1818–1899), who occupied the house until 1875. The house has a Local Government Heritage Listing.
St Paul's Anglican Church was built in 1848 and has a cemetery.
The former Arms of Australia Inn was built in 1833 to service the roads through the area. It has been restored by the Nepean District Historical Society with government funding and is used as a historical museum. It has a Local Government Heritage Listing.
At the corner of Russell Street and the Great Western Highway is the original Emu Plains post office, a sandstone Gothic cottage.
Weather
Things to do
