HISTORY OF THE AREA

Leppington, Rossmore, Kemps Creek, Austral and West Hoxton are dotted with market gardens, poultry farms, horse studs and nurseries.

Rossmore can lay claim to being one of NSW’s oldest agricultural districts. The suburb, which was originally called Cabramatta, was at one time a thriving wheat growing area but many local farmers were brought to their knees when crop disease ruined their livelihood.

The first public school at Rossmore opened in 1902 but the small number of children in the area forced its closure in 1924 and it didn’t reopen until 1939.

A number of public servants were among the first to receive land grants throughout Liverpool’s rural suburbs including James Foster, a convict turned clerk; William Cordeaux who named his 700 acre property ‘Leppington Park’; Anthony Kemp, an ensign in the NSW Corps who named his property at Kemps Creek ‘Mount Vernon’; and solicitor John Gurner who cultivated 40 acres at Austral and cleared a further 80 acres where he reared cattle and horses, Gurner Avenue is named after him.

Wallacia, Greendale, Luddenham, Bringelly and Badgerys Creek all lie on the fringe of Liverpool.

Identities like James Badgery, explorer John Blaxland and the famous Wild Colonial Boy all hail from these suburbs
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Badgerys Creek got its name from James Badgery who was one of the first free settlers to come to the penal colony in NSW and set up home in the suburb along with Blaxland who also owned extensive properties at Luddenham.

Bringelly bears an Aboriginal name said to mean “unobtainable”. Government botanist George Caley used the name when he explored the Area in 1802. Other land owners in Bringelly included Magistrate Robert Lowe, Judge Ellis Bent and surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth.

Bushrangers were equally notable in Bringelly and the wild Colonial Boy, Jack Donohue, often made camp there. It is also where he died in a shoot out with police.
His legend lives on in a song that was banned by authorities but, not to beaten, it continued on with the name changed to Jack Doolan and then later the wild Colonial Boy.

Early land owners weren’t typically male either. Mary Birch’s 500 acre property, Greendale, is where the suburb got its name. Greendale was at one point a thriving timber and wheat-producing area.