Photo of the Demountable Buildings at St Marys High School in 1957 courtesy of State Archives NSW. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. IN 1962 “Freedom Park” had been chosen by Mr William J Eason the Principal of St Marys High School and proposed by him at […]

Photo of a diesel-electric locomotive courtesy of the Commonwealth Department of Munitions. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. DURING 1943 the Commonwealth Department of Munitions imported four diesel-electric locomotives built by the General Electric Company from the USA for use as shunters at St Marys. These were […]

Watercolour of the Church courtesy of National Library. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. IN April 1840 The “Sydney Herald” recorded that “The new Church of St Mary Magdalene at South Creek was consecrated by the Lord Bishop on Wednesday last. The Church, which is a very […]

Photo of the Protestant Hall at St Marys taken by photographer Charles Kerry. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. September 1916. It is freely admitted that the people of St Marys through their civic and social leaders possess the facility of organization in a large degree and […]

IN January 1907 Arthur Judges held a magisterial enquiry touching on the death of a young married man named Ernest Anderson, a half-brother of Joseph Hayes of Penrith. Ernest was on a visit at the time the fatality occurred just below the Nepean River Bridge. Alick McLennan stated that he was a farm labourer, 16 […]

Photo of the grave courtesy of the Find a Grave Website. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. James Bourke a resident of Orchard Hills died in High Street Penrith on Friday on the 2nd January 1925. Mr Norman Wade was driving his car up High Street and […]

By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. THE first inhabitants were the Dharug aboriginal people. Fourteen tribes or “mobs” made up this language group and the people who inhabited both sides of South Creek were known as the Gomerrigal-Tongarra clan and they called the Penrith area “Mooroo Murak”. […]

100 years ago in December 1924, children of the Infants’ Department of Penrith’s District School had a very enjoyable time at the Nepean Picture Theatre when the annual Christmas Tree was held. A large number of children under the care of Miss Smith the mistress of the department had assembled at the theatre at 2pm […]

The photo of the grave shows the monument has been broken from the pedestal and sits on the ground of the grave. IT would be perfectly safe to say that there was practically no one who has resided in Penrith at any time during the past 25 years or more who was not personally acquainted […]

Photo courtesy of Penrith City Library. By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc. FINE tributes were paid to the service of Mr E W Orth organist over many years and Sunday School Superintendent Mr C H Fulton at a social function held in Penrith’s St Stephen’s the Martyr […]