QUAKERS HILL
by John Horne
Quakers Hill is one of many modern suburbs within the greater City of Blacktown . With a population today of more than 27,000 people it is a mixture of old and new . It has numerous schools and other educational establishments including a university campus . The oldest school is Quakers Hill Public School that began in 1912 . When the school was first established there were only twenty-three families with school-age children in the whole area . Before Quakers Hill Public School was built , local children walked or rode to Blacktown Public School or went by train to Riverstone Public School .
The railway came to Quakers Hill in 1872 and back then it was called Douglas Siding after the Douglas Family who operated a timber mill there . Douglas Road commemorates them today . The name was changed to Quakers Hill in 1905 and up until 1926 Quakers Hill was the first stop after Blacktown on the railway line to Richmond .
The name Quakers Hill is a very old name for this locality . Along with Rooty Hill and Prospect , Quakers Hill is a name much older even than the name “ Black Town ” which did not start to be used until the 1820s . From its beginnings through to the twentieth century Quakers Hill remained a farming community surrounded by heavily timbered bushland . Its creeks once were pristine and were known for their abundance of wild duck . Perhaps the area should have been called Quackers Hill ?
The Dharug people called the area Warawarry , which probably means ‘ fresh water ’ and the Pye Family that were granted land in the Quakers Hill district in 1816 called their property Waarwaar Awaa when John Pye first moved there . Why the name Quakers Hill was chosen is a mystery even though there are several explanations that link the area with a ’ Quaker ’ though without any evidence .
In 1806 Surveyor James Meehan was sent out by Governor Bligh to survey the eastern branch of South Creek ( Eastern Creek ) and in his Field Book under the date of Monday 6 October 1806 he wrote “ Trace of the Eastern Branch of the South Creek
– Commencing from a marked apple tree ( a type of eucalyptus tree ) where an old stock yard had been – near Quakers Hill ,“ and at the end of his trace he observed that he was south-east of Quakers Hill . So , the name Quakers Hill predates October 1806 and Surveyor Meehan would have been using a well-known name for the local hill . He would not have used the name ‘ Quakers Hill ’ if people in general did not know the place he was talking about . But by whom and in whose honour the hill was named ‘ Quakers Hill ’ remains a mystery .
Today the original natural feature that once gave the area its name , The Quakers Hill , is in the suburb of Marayong . It has Marayong Heights Public School and the Marayong Heights Reserve topping its crown and Breakfast Creek flows past its southern crest .
Apart from the Pye Family with two grants , one to John Pye and another to his son , Joseph Pye , the other early European settlers in the area were Major West ( Major was his given name ), William Henry Alcock and Robert Campbell . These five land grants covered all of modern Quakers Hill .
THE FIRST SETTLERS IN QUAKERS HILL William Henry Alcock was an Irish rebel sent to New South Wales as a political prisoner , arriving in 1801 . After being pardoned in 1808 for good behaviour , he went on to become the Superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory in 1814 . He was granted 400 acres ( 162 hectares ) at Quakers Hill and later died in Launceston Tasmania .
Robert Campbell was granted 695 acres ( 280 hectares ) at Quakers Hill in the area north of where the railway line stands today . The Pearce Family of Kings Langley fame bought Campbell ’ s property and farmed it until modern times .
John Pye was convicted of arson in Warwickshire , England and sentenced to fourteen years transportation , arriving in New South Wales in 1791 . He did well , gaining various land grants on which he grew citrus fruits and meat for the Government Stores . In 1816 he and one of his sons , Joseph , received adjoining land grants along Eastern Creek in today ’ s
Quakers Hill Level Crossing looking along Douglas Road . Photo : Blacktown Memories .
Quakers Hill area . By 1828 the Pye Family was running over 750 head of cattle on their properties . They also bred fine racehorses . Joseph ’ s descendants lived on this land until 1938 after which it was swallowed up by the new Schofield Aerodrome . John James Pye one of their descendants , was a very prominent citizen and one of the first councillors in the early days of the Shire of Blacktown after 1906 .
Major West was an Irish-born surgeon on the convict ship Francis and Eliza in 1815 . During the voyage he lost most of his belongings including his surgical instruments when the ship was plundered by the American privateer Warrior . After settling in New South Wales he was the Assistant Surgeon in Sydney ( 1815-1817 ), Parramatta ( 1817-1821 ) and Windsor ( 1821 ). He was granted 2000 acres ( 810 hectares ) at Quakers Hill . The notorious bushranger ‘ Bold Jack Donohue ’ was a convict-worker on West ’ s farm before he turned rogue and began robbing travellers on the King ’ s highways .
Apart from agriculture and the timber industry , Quakers Hill from the early twentieth century , always had a connection with aircraft and other flying machines . The hundred- year-old Pye Family House at Quakers Hill was demolished in 1942 to make way for the new runways at the RAAF Schofields Aerodrome . At the end of World War Two it was a Royal Navy Air Base and then a RAAF Base again . In the 1950s RAAF Schofields became HMAS Nirimba until it closed in 1994 . It is now covered by educational institutions , new suburbs , housing , parks , sporting fields , roads and shops .
THE BLIMPS In 1985 a large domed building was erected on Schofields Aerodrome . It could be seen from kilometres away across the wide-open spaces . It housed two airships that droned overhead and these were used for advertising , sightseeing and as camera platforms for televising the America ’ s Cup Races off Perth and other sporting events around Australia . They were not so popular among locals who did not like their privacy being disturbed by the slowmoving blimps flying noisily above their back yards .
Swan Premium Lager Blimp G-SKSD , Schofields , c . 1986 . Photo : Tim B . Boxell .
Founded in 1976 to ensure that the history of the Blacktown area would be collected and conserved for all time by tapping into documents and people ’ s memories .
You are welcome to visit our Research Centre , open Tuesdays 10.00 am to 2.00pm , or by appointment .
Grantham Heritage Park BDHS Research Centre 71 Seven Hills Road South , Seven Hills NSW 2147 PO Box 500 Blacktown NSW 2148 Phone 02 9676 1198 www . blacktownhistory . org . au
10 ISSUE 16 // JULY 2022 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT