Thursday 31 January Parramatta

Governor's House

Another perfect day for sight seeing; a good day to catch the ferry up river to Parramatta, an inner west suburb of Sydney and the highest navigable town on the Parramatta river. We hopped a bus from Glebe to Circular Quay and found we had 40 minutes to wait for the next service so popped across the road into the old Customs House which is now a library and read English newspapers until it was time to go.

Our ferry was waiting, a fast and sleek catamaran which can navigate the shallow waters at the head of the river. Being dedicated tourists we sat on the windswept front deck and rubber necked the coves, marinas and beautiful water front houses as we went up the river. On the final approached to Parramatta the navigable part of the river is one ferry boat wide with mangroves closing from each bank and you get a fair idea of how it must have been for the early settlers who came here to grow vegetables. These early colonists relied entirely on stores shipped from England and the land around Port Jackson was too dry and sandy for crops. Parramatta was the original allotment patch for Sydney. A Governor built a house around his garden. Farms were developed through the 1800s.

Jackster in Blackwattle Bay

Today Parramatta is a modern suburb with modern office blocks and a shopping centre interwoven with older, original buildings.

Our trip back into the city was by train, much quicker but nowhere as scenic as taking a ferry up the river.