* Location
Emu Plains is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 58 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.
Emu Plains is on the western side of the Nepean River, located at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
* History
The first British explorers to visit the area surveyed Emu Plains in 1790 and named it Emu Island after emus they sighted on the land and in the mistaken belief that the land was actually on an island in the Nepean River. It was first referred to by its current name by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1814 when William Cox started building his road over the Blue Mountains from there. A government farm with convict labour was established in 1813 with 1326 convicts working on growing local agriculture. It closed down in 1833 and the land was Gazetted and sold to establishment the village of Emu Plains.
Emu Ferry Post Office opened on 1 April 1863 and was renamed Emu Plains in 1882.
The removal of river-stones from the Nepean River for concrete and road-base was begun by the Emu and Prospect Gravel and Road Metal Company in the 1880s. A railway siding, which was to be ultimately expanded into a short branch, was first laid in from the Main Western Line at Emu Plains in 1884. Railway operations, which included their own locomotives, continued until 1967, after when only a siding, shunted by Government trains, remained. All railway operations ceased in 1993.
* Emu Plains Timeline by Penrith City Council
Places of Interest
