Editing Parramatta (section)

=== British colonisation ===
Parramatta was colonised by the British in 1788, the same year as Sydney. As such, Parramatta is the second oldest city in Australia, being only 10 months younger than Sydney. The British colonists, who had arrived in January 1788 on the [[First Fleet]] at [[Sydney Cove]], had only enough food to support themselves for a short time and the soil around Sydney Cove proved too poor to grow the amount of food that 1,000 [[convicts in Australia|convicts]], soldiers and administrators needed to survive. During 1788, Governor [[Arthur Phillip]] had reconnoitred several places before choosing Parramatta as the most likely place for a successful large farm.<ref>"Man of Honour – John Macarthur", Michael Duffy, Macmillan 2003, p. 81 ff</ref> Parramatta was the [[Head of navigation|furthest navigable point inland]] on the Parramatta River (i.e. furthest from the thin, sandy coastal soil) and also the point at which the river became freshwater and therefore useful for farming.

On Sunday 2 November 1788, Governor Phillip took a detachment of marines along with a surveyor and, in boats, made his way upriver to a location that he called The Crescent, a defensible hill curved round a river bend, now in [[Parramatta Park, New South Wales|Parramatta Park]]. The Burramattagal were rapidly displaced with notable residents Maugoran, [[Boorong]] and Baludarri being forced from their lands.<ref name="smith">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Keith Vincent |title=Wallumedegal: an Aboriginal History of Ryde |date=2005 |publisher=City of Ryde |location=Ryde |url=https://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/library/wallumedegal-an-aboriginal-history-of-ryde.pdf}}</ref> 

As a settlement developed, Governor Phillip gave it the name "Rose Hill" after British politician [[George Rose (politician)|George Rose]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51780016 |title=The romance of Australian place names. |newspaper=[[The Australian Women's Weekly]] | date=27 May 1964 |access-date=14 October 2013 |page=59 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> On 4 June 1791 Phillip changed the name of the township to Parramatta, approximating the term used by the local Aboriginal people.<ref name="Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, volume 105">{{cite web|author1=E. R. Pretyman|title=SOME NOTES ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAPTAIN JAMES KELLY|url=https://eprints.utas.edu.au/13417/1/1971_Pretyman_Life_and_times_Captain_James_Kelly.pdf|access-date=15 March 2018|date=7 July 1970}}</ref> A neighbouring suburb acquired the name "Rose Hill", which today is spelt "[[Rosehill, New South Wales|Rosehill]]".
[[File:Uwsparra1.JPG|thumb|The former [[Rydalmere Hospital|Female Orphan School]] was one of the first schools in the area]]
In an attempt to deal with the food crisis, Phillip in 1789 granted a convict named [[James Ruse]] the land of [[Experiment Farm Cottage|Experiment Farm]] at Parramatta on the condition that he develop a viable agriculture. There, Ruse became the first European to successfully grow grain in Australia. The Parramatta area was also the site of the pioneering of the Australian wool industry by [[John Macarthur (wool pioneer)|John Macarthur]]'s [[Elizabeth Farm]] in the 1790s. [[Philip Gidley King]]'s account of his visit to Parramatta on 9 April 1790 is one of the earliest descriptions of the area. Walking four miles with Governor Phillip to Prospect, he saw undulating grassland interspersed with magnificent trees and a great number of [[kangaroos]] and [[emu]]s.<ref>Flynn 1997, p 28</ref>

The [[Battle of Parramatta]], a major battle of the [[Australian frontier wars]], occurred in March 1797 where [[Eora people|Eora]] leader [[Pemulwuy]] led a group of [[Bidjigal]] warriors, estimated to be at least 100, in an attack on the town of Parramatta. The local garrison withdrew to their barracks and Pemulwuy held the town until he was eventually shot and wounded. A year later, a government farm at [[Toongabbie]] was attacked by Pemulwuy, who challenged the [[New South Wales Corps]] to a fight.<ref>{{Cite news | newspaper = The Sun Herald | date = 16 February 2008 | url = http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare/archives/2008/03/who_we_are_the_11.html | title = WHO WE ARE: The man who nearly changed everything | first = David | last = Dale | access-date = 25 April 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120623080301/http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare/archives/2008/03/who_we_are_the_11.html | archive-date = 23 June 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>J Henniker Heaton, ''Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time'', Sydney, 1873</ref>

Governor Arthur Phillip built a small house for himself on the hill of The Crescent. In 1799 this was replaced by a larger residence which, substantially improved by Governor [[Lachlan Macquarie]] from 1815 to 1818, has survived to the present day, making it the oldest surviving Government House anywhere in Australia. It was used as a retreat by Governors until the 1850s, with one Governor ([[Thomas Brisbane|Governor Brisbane]]) making it his principal home for a short period in the 1820s.

In 1803, another famous incident occurred in Parramatta, involving a convicted criminal named [[Joseph Samuel]], originally from England. Samuel was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging, but the rope broke. In the second attempt, the noose slipped off his neck. In the third attempt, the new rope broke. Governor King was summoned and pardoned Samuel, as the incident appeared to him to be [[Miracle|divine intervention]].<ref name="HERALD SATURDAY MAGAZINE">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27523294 |title="HERALD" SATURDAY MAGAZINE. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=26 September 1953 |access-date=30 June 2014 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

In 1814, Macquarie opened a school for Aboriginal children at Parramatta as part of a policy of improving relations between Aboriginal and European communities. This school was later relocated to [[Blacktown|"Black Town"]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Norman |first1=Heidi |title=Parramatta and Black Town Native Institutions |date=2015 |url=http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/parramatta_and_black_town_native_institutions |website=Dictionary of Sydney |publisher=Dictionary of Sydney Trust |access-date=8 February 2016}}</ref>