NSWFarming
St Marys (NSW)
A township named after its church, on the road west.
1840Church consecrated and St Marys post office opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Farms were granted along South Creek from 1804, where the creek gave permanent water and the Great Western Road crossed it, and the settlement was first called South Creek. Phillip Parker King gave land on the hill for a church, and the village took its name from St Mary Magdalene, consecrated in 1840.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Town allotments were sold from the O’Connell estate in 1842, and inns, tanneries and wagon builders served the western road. The railway arrived in 1862 and the town became a municipality in 1890. In the Second World War a huge munitions filling factory employed thousands, and much of its land later became an industrial estate.
TURNING POINTS
1837Bishop Broughton lays the foundation stone of St Mary Magdalene Church on 22 November.
1840The church is consecrated in April, and a post office named St Marys opens on 1 October.
1842The first town allotments are sold from the O’Connell estate.
1862The western railway reaches South Creek; the name St Marys appears in the railway timetable from 1885.
1890St Marys is proclaimed a municipality on 4 March.
1941A munitions filling factory is established on 3,500 acres north of the town.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A busy western Sydney centre in Penrith City, with its main street in Queen Street and a station on the Western line.