Elizabeth Farm is an historic estate in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Elizabeth Farm was the family home of wool pioneer, John and his wife Elizabeth Macarthur. It was commenced in 1793 on a slight hill overlooking the upper reaches of Parramatta River, 23 kilometres west of Sydney Cove. This area belonged to the Burramattagal clan of the Dharug people, whose presence is recalled in the name Parramatta.
The small, solid three-roomed brick cottage was transformed, by the late 1820s, into a smart country house, surrounded by ‘pleasure grounds’, orchards and almost 1,000 acres (4 km²) of semi-cleared land. Enveloped within later extensions, the early cottage remains intact, making it Australia’s oldest surviving European dwelling.
It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that is open to the public for a modest fee.
Famous quotes containing the words elizabeth and/or farm:
“...we never worked for white people in their homes. No, sir, not even once! That is one of the accomplishments in my life of which I am the most proud, yes, sir!”
—Annie Elizabeth Delany (b. 1891)
“I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruit, but dollars; who loves not the beauty of his fruits, whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)