Parramatta

Twenty-four kilometres west of Sydney, Parramatta (population 145,000), a Daruag Aboriginal name meaning ‘the place where eels lie down’, was Australia’s second European settlement. Sydney’s sandy soils were lousy for growing carrots – Parramatta’s river plains were chosen instead. During the 1980s, the local Rugby League team the Parramatta Eels were unbeatable, their acid-wash-clad, mullet-proud fans perpetuating Sydneysiders’ view of Parramatta as little more than a low-brow shopping-mall ’burb full of insane Neanderthals. A rash of horrendous architectural disservices has augmented this perception, but with the ’80s dead and buried, Parramatta has got on with the task of establishing itself as Sydney’s second CBD, injecting a healthy dose of culture and a nascent style of its own. Modernity aside, Parramatta retains a small-town vibe and a clutch of precious colonial buildings. You can catch the train here, but the one-hour ride from Circular Quay on the ferry is much more interesting: Sydney Harbour thins into the lazy, waterlily-laden Parramatta River, just 25m across. The helpful Parramatta Heritage & Visitors Information Centre can steer you towards the city’s attractions. Old Government House, established in 1799, was Parramatta’s first farm and housed successive NSW governors until the 1850s. It’s now a preciously maintained museum; entry is via hour-long tours around colonially furnished rooms. Phone for details about monthly ghost nights. Nearby on O’Connell St between Argyle and Campbell Sts, the open, paper-dry lawns of St John’sCemetery comprise Australia’s oldest cemetery (1870), the resting place of many an early settler. Elizabeth Farm contains part of Australia’s oldest surviving European home (1793), built by renegade pastoralist and rum trader John Macarthur, a ruthless capitalist whose politicking made him immensely wealthy and a thorn in the side of successive governors. It’s now a hands-on museum – recline on the furniture and thumb voyeuristically through Elizabeth Macarthur’s letters. Not far away, surrounded by 200-year-old camphor laurels and English oaks, Hambledon Cottage, built in 1824 for the Macarthurs’ daughter’s governess, was later used as weekend lodgings and almost became a car park in the ’80s. An 1835 colonial bungalow, Experiment Farm Cottage was built by Governor Phillip in 1791 for emancipist farmer James Ruse as an experiment to see how long it would take him to wean himself from government supplies. Ruse subsequently became Australia’s first private farmer; his life is depicted in the musty cellar museum.