Elizabeth Farm

Australia’s earliest surviving colonial homestead, just a few minutes’ walk from Parramatta’s modern CBD. 

By Adeline Teoh

Read more about Parramatta

One of the things you discover quickly about living in Parramatta is how close you are to the built history of colonial Australia. Jog around Parramatta Park and you’ll see Old Government House; enter Parramatta Station from the south-west and you might notice the 19th-century Lancer Barracks across the road. 

And so it was that I discovered Elizabeth Farm by chance on a walk around the back streets of the suburb now known as Rosehill.

From the outside, the grounds look like parkland. There’s a grass lawn that slopes gently towards Clay Cliff Creek and plenty of trees in the surrounding Elizabeth Farm Reserve. 

At its heart, however, is a yellow-toned homestead which, since 1984, has been a museum.

Elizabeth Farm was built in 1793 for British Army officer John Macarthur and his family, just five years after Captain Arthur Phillip sailed into Sydney Harbour to settle Australia as a colony. The Macarthur family arrived with the Second Fleet in 1790 and, from the get-go, Governor Phillip and Macarthur did not get on. 

When Phillip left for England in 1792, he left Major Francis Grose in charge and it was through Macarthur’s positive relationship with Grose that he was able to secure land at Rosehill. The house was built using convict labour, and he named it for his wife, Elizabeth. 

If the name Macarthur twigs something in your memory, it’s because he was a prominent figure in the early days of the colony. John Macarthur was a particularly belligerent chap – he was involved in a couple of notable duels and he played a major role in the Rum Rebellion. 

Later, he was at the forefront of the merino wool trade. Older Australians might recall his portrait next to a Merino ram on the old two-dollar banknote. Elizabeth Macarthur was also instrumental in managing the estates and trade, particularly when John was repatriated to England and later declared insane before his death in 1834. 

But let’s focus on their first home. In the early days of the colony, land and a staff of convicts was granted to military officers to encourage farming and settlement. At the time, buildings were still fairly rustic, constructed from handsawn timber and finished with locally made bricks and mud loam mortar. The original home was probably whitewashed, and later painted with yellow limewash.

Macarthur describes the house in a 1794 letter to his brother in England. “In the centre of my farm I have built a most excellent brick house, 68 feet in front, and 18 feet in breadth. 

“It has no upper story, but consists of four rooms on the ground floor, a large hall, closets, cellar, adjoining is a kitchen, with servants’ apartments and other necessary offices. 

“The house is surrounded by a vineyard and garden of about 3 acres; the former full of vines and fruit trees and the latter abounding in the most excellent vegetables. The farm being near the barracks, I can without difficulty attend to the duties of my profession.”

Over the years the homestead saw additions and improvements, but by the 1840s – after Macarthur’s death – it was considered rundown. Macarthur’s eldest son Edward had inherited the property, and Edward’s widow Sarah sold it in 1881, at which point it was subdivided and tenanted, even at one stage used as a glue factory.

In 1904, schoolteacher William Swann and his wife (coincidentally also named Elizabeth) bought the property and thought to demolish and rebuild the house. Noting its historic origins, however, Swann decided to carefully repair it instead. It was this foresight that brought the homestead to the attention of the emergent Elizabeth Farm Museum Trust in 1968. 

Three of Swann’s surviving daughters sold it to the trust, but unfortunately the organisation did not have the funds to preserve the property, so the deed was transferred to the NSW Government. The homestead then underwent extensive conservation work managed by the Heritage Council of NSW.

The government formed the Historic Houses Trust of NSW in 1980 (now called the Museums of History NSW) and opened Elizabeth Farm as a museum in 1984. 

The garden is designed in a style from the 1830s and all the furnishings and objects are replicas based on inherited pieces owned by Macarthur descendants, which means visitors can interact with the contents of the house for a more immersive experience.

Elizabeth Farm is today a popular destination for school excursions, where students learn about Australian colonial history, but it is also used as a venue for public workshops and events.

Remembering Country

Outside is Healing land, remembering Country, a permanent installation by Kuku Yalanji artist Tony Albert. 

Resembling a wooden greenhouse nursery, the piece includes woven baskets made by Indigenous weavers in central Australia and native plants supplied by the Muru Mittigar nursery. 

It is a response to the establishment of the 19th-century Native Institution (John Macarthur’s nephew was a committee member), which sought to control the Indigenous population and whose effects are still felt today.

Elizabeth Farm

70 Alice Street, Rosehill

Free EntryOpen 10am–4pm, Fri & Sat

mhnsw.au/visit-us/elizabeth-farm