NSWRail & telegraph
Homebush
The Wentworths’ racecourse got a stop on the first railway.
1855Station opens on the colony’s first railway
WHAT STARTED IT
Homebush grew on Parramatta Road beside the Wentworth family’s Home Bush estate, where William Charles Wentworth ran a racecourse from 1841. When the colony’s first railway opened in 1855, a station was placed within 200 yards of Parramatta Road, near the Governor Gipps and Cutler inns and about three-quarters of a mile from the racecourse gate.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Homebush was Sydney’s main racecourse until racing moved to Randwick in 1860. Houses later spread north of the railway, and residents petitioned for their own council. Homebush Municipal Council was proclaimed in 1906 with 548 residents and 90 houses, and kept meeting until 1947, when Homebush became part of Strathfield.
TURNING POINTS
1827Colonial surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth dies at Homebush on 7 July.
1841Race meetings begin in March on the Wentworth land at Homebush.
1855Homebush station opens with the Sydney–Parramatta railway on 26 September.
1860Racing moves from Homebush to the re-established Randwick course.
1906Homebush Municipal Council is proclaimed on 6 June.
1947Homebush council holds its last meeting before merging into Strathfield.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb of houses and apartments around the 1855 station, in Strathfield council area. In 2021 about one in five residents was born in India.