Werrington Downs, New South Wales

Werrington Downs is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 52 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.HistoryAboriginal culturePrior to European settlement, what is now Werrington Downs 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 yams, berries and other native plants. Shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788, an outbreak of smallpox decimated the local indigenous communities and made it easier for settlers to disposses them of their land.European settlementThe first land grant in the area was made in 1831 to Phillip Parker King, son of the Governor Phillip Gidley King. It became part of the Werrington estate belonging to his sister Mary Lethbridge and was run as a farm until the 1880s when subdivision began. Widespread residential development didn't begin until the 1970s when Landcom began building in the area. The suburb's name was gazetted in 1976.