NSWFarming
Narara
The district’s first permanent settler planted citrus here.
1824Hely’s Narara grant
WHAT STARTED IT
Narara lies in the Narara Creek valley just north of Gosford. In 1824 Frederick Hely, superintendent of convicts, was granted 1340 acres here and became the first to settle permanently in the district and grow citrus.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The valley filled with orchards and small mixed farms, and the railway station opened in 1887. From 1912 a state viticultural nursery at Narara bred phylloxera-resistant grape rootstocks, later becoming a citrus research station.
TURNING POINTS
1824Frederick Hely is granted 1340 acres at Narara and establishes a farm called Wyoming.
1887Narara railway station opens on the Main North line.
1912The Narara Viticulture Nursery is set up to produce phylloxera-resistant rootstocks.
1950sThe nursery is gradually turned into a citrus research station.
2011The research centre moves from Narara to Ourimbah.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb on the northern edge of Gosford, served by its own railway station. The government research station moved to Ourimbah in 2011 after a century on the Narara site.