NSWRail & telegraph
Fairfield
The one stop between Parramatta and Liverpool grew into a town.
1856Station opens on the Liverpool railway
WHAT STARTED IT
When the railway was extended from Parramatta Junction to Liverpool in 1856, Fairfield was the only station between them. Farms and orchards around the station, and later vineyards, sent produce to Sydney by rail, and a township grew along The Crescent beside it.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Local campaigners won duplication of the Granville–Liverpool line, which was built in 1891–93. The Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield was formed in 1888; in 1920 the council resolved to build chambers in Ware Street, Fairfield, and the municipality was renamed Fairfield. It absorbed Cabramatta and Canley Vale in 1948, and became a city in 1979.
TURNING POINTS
1856Fairfield station opens on the railway extension to Liverpool.
1857Fairfield is the only stop between Parramatta and Liverpool in the published timetable.
1888The Municipal District of Smithfield and Fairfield is formed.
1893Duplication of the Granville–Liverpool line is completed after a local campaign.
1920The council resolves to build chambers in Ware Street, and the municipality is renamed Fairfield in October.
1975Cambridge House, a large Victorian house in Fairfield, is burned and demolished.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
The commercial centre of the Fairfield area, still built around the railway station. In 2021 more than one in five residents was born in Iraq.