Welcome to: St Marys NSW, Australia

Great Western Highway, St Marys looking west c.1900 Copy donated by Sue Adams, St Marys Historical Society. Penrith City Library Photographic Collection

Location: Where is St Marys?

St Marys, New South Wales Australia, is located on the eastern side of the Penrith Local Government Area. Its western boundary is South Creek with the M4 Motorway as its southern boundary. Marsden Road and Sydney Street divides this suburb from the smaller suburbs of Colyton and Oxley Park on its eastern boundary. Its northern section takes in the previously named industrial suburb of Dunheved. St Marys has a long and rich industrial and agricultural history including tanneries and munitions. The area which is now the suburb is much reduced from its historical perspective known as St Marys. This suburb is the major industrial, commercial and residential centre for the eastern side of the local government area. This suburb services many rural and urban communities, making it a vital part of the City of Penrith.

33 45' S 150 46' E

Cemeteries

Child Care Services & Child Care Centres

• Current information on Penrith City Councils Childrens Services and Moblie Playvan schedule
• Keymer Child Care Centre : 27-29 Bentley Road, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 1499.
• Koala Corner Child Care Centre: Cnr Swanston & Collins Streets, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 9381.
• St Marys Central Before & After School Car & Vacation Care: Charles Hackett Drive, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9833 3195.
• Mary's Tiny Tots: 29 Phillip Street, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9833 4933.
• St Marys/Penrith Family Care: Bronte House, 50 Gidley Street, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 9199.
• St Mary's Occasional Care: Cnr. Carinya and Crana Street, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9833 2149.
• Blinky Bill Preschool: Cnr. Australia Street and Great Western Highway, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 5069.
• St Mary's Children's Centre: 7 Collins Street, St Marys, 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 5117.

Churches

• St Mary Magdalene Anglican Church: Magdalene Street, St Marys, NSW 2760.
  Ph: (02) 8807 7800. 
• Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church: 26 Swanson Street, St. Marys, NSW 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9623 1962; Fax: (02) 9833 1063.
• St Paul's Lutheran Church: 22 Milham Street St Marys, 2760, NSW.
  Ph: (02) 9834 3756.

• Hillsong Church St Marys: 40 Phillip Street, St Marys, 2760 NSW; PO Box 589 St Marys 2760.
  Ph: (02) 9673 2395; Fax: (02) 9673 2322.
  

Community Recognition

Halls

Health Services

Neighbourhood Centre

Schools

Social Clubs

Population

• For a detailed statistical analysis and community profile (includes results from the 2001, 1996 and 1991 Censuses of Population and Housing, from id Solutions: St Marys
• Summary analysis below from 2001 Census of Population and Housing

**Please note** This table is only for the specific population of St Marys. It does not
include Oxley Park, Colyton and North St Marys.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Copyright in ABS data resides with the Commonwealth of Australia. Used with permission.

For more data on St Marys (or any other areas in New South Wales) from the 2001 Census, please contact Penrith Library Research Services (02) 4732 7886, or call in to Penrith City Library Civic Centre 601 High Street Penrith, NSW 2750.

Recreation

Arts & Crafts

Clubs & Pubs

Restaurants

Sporting Groups

For information on local sporting groups consult the Recreation Guide which is compiled and updated annually by the staff of the Recreation and Cultural Services Department of Penrith City Council.
Ph: (02) 4732 7586.

Economic/ Land use profile

Roads & Streets

Railways

ADI Residents Action Group - Save the ADI Site from 8000 more houses!

The ADI site at St Marys is a precious remnant of the woodlands that once stretched from Windsor in the north to Picton in the South and east/west from Parramatta to Penrith. The northern edge of the site sits just below the junction of South Creek and Ropes Creek, which span across part of the site. This 1535 ha of publicly owned land is to be developed into 8000 houses and an industrial area by the developers ADI Ltd (100% Commonwealth govt. owned) and Lend Lease. The NSW State government has given general endorsement to the development. A draft Regional Environmental Plan (REP) and Development Agreement is expected to be released for public comment in 2-4 months.
Source: ADI Residents Action Group

Landscape Profile

Historical profile

Aboriginal History

For more general information on the Dharug people please see The Dharug Story by Chris Tobin (Penrith City Library collection 994.004 DHA). It is also available online. For information on the Aboriginal population of St Marys from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing see Community Profile for St Marys.
Other links are St Marys Aborigines.

The Aborigines of South Creek

The first inhabitants of the Sydney basin bounded by Port Jackson and Botany Bay in the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, north to the Hawkesbury River and south to Appin, had in common the Dharug language. Fourteen tribes or clans made up this language group and the people who inhabited both sides of South Creek were known as the Gomerrigal-Tongarra clan.

Unlike the Blue Mountains clans who used rock shelters, the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people lived in open camp sites along the creek in simple gunyahs. These were constructed from three leaning poles lashed together at the top and covered on two sides with bark. They had a habit of smearing mud on their skin to protect them from the effects of both weather and insects. In winter they wore animal skins to keep warm.

Very little is known of their cultural and ceremonial life. According to researcher and writer James L. Kohen, the Gomerrigal-Tongarra clan had rights to the ridges at Plumpton and the gravels of Eastern Creek. From these areas they used red silcrete rocks to make sharp flakes which were then fashioned into tools or used as barbs on spears. The MacLaurin family (who lived at Mamre) also asserted that the bodies of the dead were not buried, but wrapped in bark and placed on platforms elevated in the branches of trees.

There are no remaining rock carvings or marked trees in the area. Emily MacLaurin described a meeting place on South Creek at Mamre at a point where '...the Creek takes in a small stream from the west, the right bank of which reaches into the creek in a narrow finger'. It is thought that despite the arrival of the Rev. Samuel Marsden in 1804, ceremonies continued to be held at this spot for some time.

By 1816 however, the Gomerrigal-Tongarra, together with the rest of the Dharug clans, had been ravaged either by clashes with the settlers or by contracting European diseases. They became increasingly dependent on the settlers for their survival. Although they had always maintained a camp on or around the Mamre estate, the Rev. Samuel Marsden now sought to encourage them to work in exchange for food and clothing. He was obviously successful in this endeavour, as by 1835 the Quaker missionary James Backhouse wrote in his journal after a visit to Mamre that '...the South Creek Natives may be considered as half-domesticated, and they often assist in the agricultural operations of the settlers.' He was also impressed by the fact that the wife of their Aboriginal guide - supplied by Marsden - could read, having been 'educated in a school, formerly kept for the Natives, at Parramatta'. The next day, Backhouse travelled onto Penrith, his guide 'another South Creek Black, named Simeon. His wife was killed, about two years ago, by some of those whom he termed "Wild Natives"...We tried in vain to persuade this man to accompany us to Wellington Valley; he did not like to go...These people are afraid of other tribes of their own race'.

Another visitor, Charles Darwin, passing through Mamre in January 1836, was impressed by the '...good humour and superior hunting skills' of the Aborigines he encountered around Penrith.

History has given us sparse records indeed about the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people. As part of the Dharug-speaking Aborigines, their life-style was probably similar to others of the Dharug clans. They were hunter-gatherers over specifically defined territories, in this case, mainly the banks of South Creek; and they adhered to particular laws of kinship, marriage, sexual practice and burial which ensured the well-being of the clan. Men and women had particular roles in the clan which were clearly defined; children were given a totem name; traditional medicine was carried out by the ‘koradji’ or doctor; and, like all Aborigines they had a spiritual Dreaming.

The clash of European and Aboriginal cultures, despite original good intentions, meant that the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people and their culture were virtually destroyed within a century of
white settlement.

Bibliography

Cree, Laura Murray, 'Mamre' Place of Promise, St Marys, 1995.
Backhouse, James, 'Account of a Journey from Parramatta Across the Blue Mountains', in Mackaness, George, Fourteen Journeys Over the Blue Mountains of New South Wales 1813-1841, Sydney, Horwitz-Grahame, 1965.

Origin of the place name - St Marys

Named after the parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, built between 1837- 40 and consecrated by Bishop Broughton in 1840, it is one of the few townships in the world actually named after a church. The site was believed to have been chosen by Phillip Parker King’s mother. The property had been acquired from John Oxley in 1828 by King, the original grant having been made in 1823. Other land grants in the area included those to Anna Josepha King in 1807 (Dunheved), Samuel Marsden (Mamre), and Mary Putland (Frogmore). The area was first called South Creek, because European settlement was originally centred along the banks of the creek. The land grants became working holdings because of the permanent water supply. The rich alluvial soil ensured an expanding agricultural community and its location on the Great Western Road meant that it became a convenient staging post. The name St. Marys was first used when the St. Marys Post Office was opened on the 1st October, 1840. The township formed part of a grant to Mary Putland (later married Sir Maurice O'Connell), the daughter of Governor William Bligh. Closer settlement of the area was made possible when in 1842 part of the O’Connell
Estate was subdivided.

Origin of the place name – Dunheved

In 1806 Governor Philip Gidley King made several large land grants totalling 3780 acres to his son and three daughters, and the following year Governor William Bligh granted an additional 790 acres to Anna Josepha King, the ex-governor’s wife. The latter property was named Thanks but the Kings returned to England soon after and Philip Gidley King died there in 1808. Meanwhile the estate was managed by Rowland Hassall with William Hayes as overseer.

While Phillip Parker King - the ex-governor’s - son returned to Australia with his wife – the former Harriet Lethbridge - in 1817, he was more involved with naval matters than the land at this time. It wasn’t until his mother returned to Australia in 1832 that the property was renamed Dunhaved - which means ‘hill-head’ - after the 13th century keep of the old castle in Launceston Cornwall, the town of her late husband’s birth. Dunhaved House was built on the property by Phillip Parker King.

The estate of Dunhaved was one of the largest in the Colony. Large numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses were bred here; grain was grown; and orchards developed. The cattle herd in particular was highly praised, and between 80 and 100 servants were employed to
work the place.

When the property was sold in 1904 and it became a suburb, the name began to change, first of all to Dunheaved and in the 1950s to Dunheved, the name it now bears. Sadly this once great property is no longer in existence. The house was demolished and a large munitions factory was built on the bulk of the estate in 1942, together with a railway station called Dunheved, to transport all the workers involved at the site.

After the Second World War, there was considerable expansion. The area immediately to the south of Dunhaved House became mainly an industrial sub-division and housing estate. The western end, a heavily wooded area, later became the suburb of Kingswood, and the remaining open grasslands disappeared under housing estates in the rapid expansion of the
1960s and 1970s.

• St Marys Industrial Heritage Study
• St Marys & District Historical Society
• Peta's Project (South Creek/St Marys): Initially a school project, Peta McPherson has now developed (with the help of the St Marys & District Historical Society) an excellent history page of the St Marys district.
• History of Education - St Marys. Compiled by Patricia Hosking.
• History of St Marys Post Office. Compiled by Patricia Hosking.
• Penrith City e-history
• An Abbreviated Industrial History of the Penrith Region
• Australia Street Project: St Marys
• St Marys Public and St Marys High Schools.
• Penrith District Dispensary Register: 1847-1860. transcribed by Helen Castle
• Mamre Homestead - featuring a beautiful panorama of Mamre.

Historical Timeline

Historic buildings & places

St Mary Magdalene Anglican Church Phillip Parker King donated the land on which St. Mary Magdalene Church was to be built in a style similar to St. Mary Magdalene Church in Dunheved, Cornwall, England. The foundation stone was laid on 22 November 1837, the same day as St. Stephen's in Penrith. The bricks for the church were made from clay found on the Dunheved estate. The church was completed in 1840 with Bishop Broughton returning for the April consecration service. The bricks were cement-rendered and the original slate roof was later replaced with tiles. Inside, the north wall bears a fine glass window to the memory of John King Lethbridge. The cemetery has many impressive headstones marking the passing of important characters in Australian history: The King & Lethbridge families and many other well known St. Marys family names: Hackett, Charker, Turner, Andrews and Beacroft.

View St Mary Magdalene Anglican Church, St Marys. Taken circa 1920 Copy donated by Sue Adams, St Marys Historical Society. Penrith City Library Photographic Collection.

Bronte Corner of King and Gidley Streets, St. Marys, New South Wales, originally owned by the Bennett Family. ‘Bronte’, the two-storeyed house on the corner of King and Gidley Streets, was once the home of James Bennett of the famous firm of ‘G and J Bennett’, wheelwrights and wagon builders of St Marys. The wagons produced by the Bennett firm gained a national reputation for quality in the late 1800's and the early 1900’s. Completed in 1889, the house was designed by architect Mr W. Sykes and was built by local St Marys builder, Joseph Sainsbury.

View of ‘Bronte’ as photographed for an advertising brochure in 1988. It was auctioned on 3rd December, 1988, by L.J. Hooker Ltd. Original held by Penrith City Library.

Bibliography

For more information on St Marys:

Historical

• Green, Annette, St Marys Industrial Heritage Study, Penrith City Council, Penrith, 1987.
• Murray, Robert and White, Kate Dharug & Dungaree: The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860. Penrith City Council, Penrith, 1988.
• Nepean District Historical Society, From Castlereagh to Claremont Meadows: Historical Places of Penrith City Council, Penrith, 1997.
• Parr, Lorna, A History of the Nepean and District Street Names, Nepean District Historical Society, Penrith, 1990.
• Parr, Lorna, Penrith Calendar, Nepean District Historical Society, 1987.
• Stacker, Lorraine, Pictorial History: Penrith & St Marys, Kingsclear Books, Alexandria, 2002.
• Stapleton, E. South Creek - St. Marys - From Village to City St. Marys. St. Marys Historical Society. 1983.
• Stevenson, Colin R., Place Names and their Origins within the City of Penrith, Penrith City Council, Penrith, 1985.
• Stickley, Christine, The Old Charm of Penrith, 2nd ed., the author, St. Marys, 1984.