BLACKTOWN CITY HISTORY
Blacktown and some hidden heritage treasures
by John Horne
Blacktown’ s history goes back thousands and thousands of years with the Dharug. However, much of the archaeology for the Dharug people’ s heritage has been lost and destroyed by over two hundred years of post-invasion land clearing, settlement and other developments, towns, cities, suburbs, roads, railways and airports. The Native Institute Site at Oakhurst on Richmond Road is one very visible Dharug site with its connections to the‘ stolen generations’.
Blacktown City has many heritage sites and buildings from its later history as well. However, most, if not all, of the colonial era structures have been demolished long ago, like Veteran’ s Hall( 1821-1929) at Prospect, Bungarribee House( 1822-1957) and Hill End( 1823-1958) at Doonside, Major Druitt’ s home at Mt Druitt( 1822-1849), the Government Depot Building( 1815-1950s) near the Blacktown International Sports Park and Rooty Hill Railway Station.
But we still have Clydesdale( 1825) at Marsden Park and Rouse Hill House( 1813) at Rouse Hill. We have the old church building and graveyard at Prospect, St Bartholomew’ s, from 1841.
We also have many other heritage sites and structures from the 18th and 19th centuries such as the 1876 Blacktown Public School Building on Flushcombe Road, Blacktown, Neoblie( 1884) on the Great Western Highway at Mt Druitt, The Manse( 1880s) on The Avenue, Mt Druitt, Woodstock House( 1889) and Alroy( 1886) in Plumpton, the Mt Druitt Community Hall( 1925) and the Rooty Hill School of Arts Building( 1903). There are many others that are not mentioned here.
One of the many‘ hidden’ heritage sites that a lot of people do not know even exists, is the Grantham Heritage Park at 71 Seven Hills Road South, Seven Hills. Opened as a park by the Blacktown City Council in 2023 it contains three heritage buildings and the remains of a very famous poultry research station that was once one of the top six poultry research establishments in the world.
The park has two historic heritage homes: Melrose House( 1897) and Drumtochty( 1880s) and the heritage-listed NSW Department of Agriculture Building( 1971). The park has a yellow egg sculpture at its entrance which highlights the site’ s
Melrose House in 1916, after it had become the manager’ s cottage for the Grantham Poultry Stud.( Photo courtesy of Wayne Olling)
In 1917, during World War One, the NSW Government established a Soldier Settlement at Grantham for returned disabled soldiers, which unfortunately failed. In 1923 the area became The NSW Grantham Model Poultry Farm. This Grantham street in 1918 could be today’ s Grantham Road.( Photo courtesy of Mitchell Library GPO1-40515-16.)
importance for the poultry industry in New South Wales, Australia and globally.
The original people who lived in this place were the Dharug. For them with the nearby Grantham Creek there was plenty to eat and drink: eels and fish, yams and all kinds of other native plants and fruits, honey from native bee hives, small reptiles and mammals, birds and birds’ eggs and large mammals. The natural environment provided them with everything else they needed.
Over time European settlers moved into the area, grants and subdivisions were created and Seven Hills Road, which started as a track, carried travellers from Prospect to Old Windsor Road. Bushrangers, like‘ Bold Jack Donohue’ preyed on travellers who used this road in the early days.
The land in the Grantham Heritage Park area proved to be unfertile for crops like wheat, and over many years it was developed into orcharding country, and by the 1860s, Seven Hills was planted with many orange trees. Some farmers in the area turned to poultry farming. Another local industry was collecting honey, because of the availability of thousands of orange trees with their annual blossoms. By the early 1900s, Seven Hills was a small village built near the railway station and up the road was a 40 hectare farm that was bought by a wealthy Sydney solicitor named William Chadwick. He built himself a substantial out of town residence which he called Melrose House in 1897. After he sold the property, it was turned into a poultry farm called The Grantham Poultry Stud.
In 1917 the NSW Lands Department bought the property and developed a soldier settlement area for injured returned soldiers. The property was divided into eleven five-acre plots, sixteen house blocks and the remaining balance was The Grantham State Poultry Farm. When the Soldier Settlement Scheme failed, the farm was turned into a model poultry farm for the over two thousand poultry farmers who lived within an eighty kilometre radius of Grantham.
After 1939 the State Poultry Farm became a research establishment where many scientific discoveries that resulted in the poultry industry all around the world being improved and made more successful, occurred.
Drumtochty was built by retired Prospect police officer Charles Beattie in the 1880-90s and was the first officer to police the area. After he retired, he became an orchardist.
The 1971 NSW Department of Agriculture Administration Building.
In 1971 the NSW Department of Agriculture was moved to the Grantham Poultry Research Station and today’ s heritage building was opened. The facility closed in 1988 and was left unoccupied. A local group called The Friends of Grantham lobbied to save the site from demolishment and development.
In 1984 Blacktown Council moved a heritage farm building, Drumtochty, onto the Grantham site and in 2000 the site was added to the State Heritage List. In 2004 Blacktown City Council bought the site from the NSW Government. At great cost it renovated Melrose House, Drumtochty and the NSW Department of Agriculture Building. Private tenants occupied Drumtochty and Melrose and the Council’ s Kid’ s Early Learning( Preschools) Department moved into the upper floor. Downstairs, the two tenants are the Blacktown and District Historical Society and the Dharug Corporation.
Blacktown Council renovated and opened the Grantham Heritage Park to the public in 2023. It’ s one of the‘ hidden’ heritage treasures of Blacktown and one that you should visit.
Blacktown
and District Historical Society Incorporated
EMERTON VILLAGE
02 8632 3408
Great Coffee, Great Food, Great Service!
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
SHOP 1, 40 JERSEY ROAD, EMERTON
Monday – Sunday 7:00am – 5:00pm Kitchen last order 3:00pm
Leaf Cafe Emerton Village leafcafeco _ emerton www. leafcafe. com. au
10 ISSUE 52 // JULY 2025 theindependentmagazine. com. au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT