Jamisontown, New South Wales

Jamisontown is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Jamisontown is located 56 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith, and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. It is located on the eastern side of the Nepean River, just south of Penrith and bears the name of Thomas Jamison, a pioneer landowner and First Fleet surgeon.

History

Aboriginal culture

Prior to European settlement, what is now Jamisontown was home to the Mulgoa people who spoke the Darug language. They lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. Their homes were bark huts called 'gunyahs'. They hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered sweet potatos, berries and other native plants.

European settlement

In 1805, the then Surgeon-General (Principal Surgeon) of the Colony of New South Wales, Thomas Jamison (1752/53-1811), was granted on the banks of the Nepean River, to the south of what is now Jamison Road. Later, the property passed to his son, Sir John Jamison (1776-1844), Kt, MD, MLC - a celebrated physician, land owner and political reformer, who erected a splendid mansion (since destroyed by fire) on the nearby Regentville estate during the 1820s.

The land at Jamisontown stayed rural for the next 150 years or so. In 1911, it was the departure point for the first cross-country flight in Australia, made by William...
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