NSWPlanned settlement
Narellan
A roadside village that Camden overshadowed, until the shopping centre came.
1827Village surveyed
WHAT STARTED IT
Robert Hoddle surveyed Narellan in 1827 as a village on the Great South Road, with a grid of streets and sites for a church, school and courthouse. Before Camden existed, coaches and travellers heading south stopped at its inns.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Camden soon outgrew it, and in 1847 the village had little more than a pound, an inn, a few workshops and a school that served as a church. The Camden tramway, opened in 1882, made Narellan station a hub for milk, timber and stock, and from 1941 coal from the Burragorang Valley was screened and loaded here.
TURNING POINTS
1827Robert Hoddle surveys and stakes out the village on land first granted to John Oxley.
1839A school-church opens on 10 November, a schoolroom on weekdays and a church on Sundays.
1882The tramway from Campbelltown to Camden, passing through Narellan, opens on 10 March.
1941Coal screening and loading facilities are moved from Camden to Narellan.
1995The Narellan Town Centre retail mall opens.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
Since the 1990s Narellan has displaced Camden as the district’s main commercial centre, around the Narellan Town Centre mall opened in 1995. The old St Thomas’ chapel and a few early inn buildings survive.