by John Horne

Plumpton is one of the many suburbs within the modern City of Blacktown, but how did it come by its unusual name?

In the 1880s, the district was originally part of Rooty Hill and later became known as Woodstock, after the large estate established there by wealthy entrepreneur Walter Lamb. When a post office opened in 1889, confusion quickly arose with another Woodstock – a railway station on the Blayney – Harden line. To avoid ongoing mix-ups, the local name was changed from Woodstock to Plumpton.

The name“ Plumpton” came from a type of greyhound coursing ground introduced to Australia by Walter Lamb. His enclosed greyhound course at Woodstock Estate, Rooty Hill, was modelled on one near Lewes in southern England. Coursing at Lamb’ s Plumpton

was a blood sport in which two greyhounds were released to chase a live hare within a large fenced paddock. The dogs killed the hare if they caught it, although occasionally the hare escaped. It was this sporting ground that ultimately gave the suburb its name.

Walter Lamb amassed his fortune through a series of highly successful ventures. He owned land in the Plumpton, Glendenning and Oakhurst districts and required those who purchased from him to plant orchards supplying fruit for his Woodstock Fruit Cannery and Processing Works.

At various times he was chairman of the Commercial Banking Company, a member of the NSW Legislative Council, a major shareholder of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and a grazier with holdings on the Darling Downs and the Liverpool Plains.

Lamb built his cannery in Cannery

Road, Plumpton, in 1887. Peaches, apricots, pears, apples and plums were grown, and up to 250 people found employment growing, picking and processing the fruit. The cannery ceased operation by 1912 and was demolished around 1922, but a number of structures from the era remain: Alroy House, Cannery Cottage, Woodstock House, the original 1890 Plumpton House School building, and the Imperial Hotel.

Coursing weekends at Woodstock attracted hundreds of people, many travelling by train from Redfern on regular services or special NSW Coursing Club trains.

The Imperial Hotel at Rooty Hill opened in 1890 to cater for visitors, and even the State Governor attended events as Patron of the Club. The coursing grounds covered approximately 120 hectares, divided into two fields each about 730 metres long and 410 metres

wide, separated by a 12-metre dog corridor. At the far end of the ground was a covert of logs and scrub where the hare could seek refuge.

Walter Lamb died at Woodstock on 13 November 1906. By then his fortunes had failed and the era of blood coursing had largely passed. In 1927, mechanical“ tin-hare” racing arrived in NSW from the United States. Although blooding continued on private land, greyhounds at race meetings now chased a mechanical lure on a track. The sport had shifted from hunt to race.

Today, Plumpton’ s name echoes an earlier time when crowds once gathered to watch greyhounds pursue live hares. Some may feel the name Woodstock, reflecting Walter Lamb’ s legacy and historic estate, would be a more fitting title for the suburb- but Plumpton remains the reminder of an unusual chapter in local history.