Macarthur Memorial Park has a diverse and rich history that can now be shared with the wider Sydney community. The newly gazetted Crown land will be available to visitors for both memorial and recreational purposes.
The scenic Macarthur region has been under the custodianship of the Dharawal Aboriginal people, who have cared for the land for hundreds of generations. The memorial park offers potential for a broader understanding of Dharawal history, customs and cultural practices.
Through consultation with representatives, the site’s archaeological finds show material evidence of Aboriginal stone tool production and Elders have identified scarred trees. The Dharawal people managed their country through trans-generational cultivation and conservation that ensured its health and regeneration.
In the early 1800s, Governor Macquarie acknowledged this contribution when he wrote: “This [St Andrews] and Dr Townson’s farm are by far the finest soil and best pasturage I have yet seen in the Colony; the grounds are beautiful and bounded by a large creek of brackish water called Bunbury Curran”
The site at Varroville in south-west Sydney, is a mostly intact estate that sustains evidence of its former agricultural usage. It provides valuable insight into 19th-century colonial enterprise, including Townson’s unique terraced viticulture, orchards and productive gardens, dairying, stock breeding, horse racing and a horse stud.
The heritage outbuildings on the site include a slab hut, coach house, cottage, barn and wool press. The site also holds contoured hillside trenches of the vineyards thought to have been established by Townson, the chain of dams in part attributed to Sturt and the remnant original tree-lined access drive for horse-drawn carriages.


A sequence of prominent colonists lived on the site. In 1810, Robert Townson (1762-1827), an educated, multilingual emigre and friend of Sir Joseph Banks, was granted the land now incorporated into the memorial park, by Governor Macquarie.
Townson was fluent in Greek, Latin, German and French and published books on diverse topics of natural history, mineralogy and geology. Townson was also a practical, investigative farmer. He established extensive award-winning vineyards and an orchard abundant with varieties of fruits and nuts. He was instrumental in the breeding development of Australian fine-wooled sheep.
Charles Sturt (1795–1869) was Varro Ville’s landowner for three years before taking up an important Government post in the colony of South Australia. Sturt is attributed with establishing the property’s first water dams as a demonstration of his belief that water conservation was the key to Australia’s colonial success.
Sturt also believed there should be a vast inland sea at Australia’s centre. He famously conducted a series of explorations of the continent’s interior under this misguided premise. His detailed diaries of exploration have informed a revised understanding of Aboriginal communities and agricultural practices, as revealed in recent works of historical research such as ‘Dark Emu’.
The property was next acquired in 1839, by the New South Wales’ first Postmaster-General, James Raymond, who introduced the world’s first system of prepaid postage. Three generations of the Raymond family lived on the estate.
Horse-racing enthusiast, Justice Alfred Cheeke, bought the property in 1859 and established a successful horse stud that exported horses to India and trained Melbourne Cup winners. Cheeke died in 1876, and the property changed hands several times leading up to the turn of the century.
The 20th century saw a gradual decline in the maintenance of the property, but a developing awareness of its heritage value. During the Second World War the popular radio series These Old Homes featured Varroville amongst its heritage sites, conveying a sense of the country’s colonial history and the pioneer’s endurance.
In 1950, Varroville was acquired by UK engineer and architect of London’s Gatwick Airport Alfred Jackaman and his wife, Cherry, who became the first female president of the National Trust of Australia (New South Wales Division) from 1979 to 1981.
Alfred died in 1980, and in 1990 Cherry presented Varroville House, now subdivided onto three acres of land, as a gift to the National Trust. Soon after, with the Trust in financial difficulties, the property was sold to assist the Trust’s funding and continued operation.
The site’s original pre-colonial ecology is today identified as Cumberland Plain Woodland, a unique ecology of soils and plants, animals and insects endemic to the Sydney Basin. The woodland is recognised as an endangered ecological community, with approximately 6 per cent of its original area intact.
Many areas cleared of original bushland for pasture and farming were overrun with the aggressive introduced African olive shrub. This and other introduced species need to be actively managed if endangered native animals, such as various microbats and the Woodland snail, are to be sustained.
The team has selected plantings to engender sites specific interpretation opportunities of the practical, cultural and spiritual uses of botanical resources. Consultation with Dharawal advisers will ensure inclusion of local Aboriginal insights, which will be the focus of the proposed Six Seasons Walk.
The Heritage Interpretation Plan being developed for Macarthur Memorial Park will inspire the visitor’s curiosity about the site’s tremendous cultural and historical significance and create a lasting legacy for future generations.
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