Agnes Banks: Historic Rural Village in Outer Western Sydney

The suburb of Agnes Banks is located in the Penrith City Council local government area in Outer Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Before European settlement, the area of Agnes Bank was occupied by the Dharug Aboriginal people and whilst there are no Aboriginal sites recorded for Agnes Banks, there are several in the surrounding area. Castlereagh and Windsor Downs Nature Reserves, for example, have a number of open Aboriginal campsites with surface scatters of stone and isolated artefacts of chert stone tools and flakes. (more info)

One of the first Dharug people to have contact with the British occurred in 1797 at Yarramundi Lagoon, which is a body of water which lies parallel to the Nepean River at Agnes Banks. This Lagoon is named after Yellomundee, who was a tribal leader in this region. On this particular day, Governor John Hunter saw a Dharug man spear a platypus.  Interestingly, Yellomundee’s daughter, Maria, who was born about 1808 near the Lagoon, became the first student at Governor Macquarie’s Parramatta Native Institution in 1814. And, according to reports, Maria learnt to read and write rather well. She also became the first Aboriginal person to marry a European and they had ten children together.

The area which would become Agnes bank was originally granted to John Howell, who received 200 acres. In 1804, Governor King granted Andrew Thompson (1773 –1810), a former convict who had arrived in the colony in 1792, the land that had belonged to Howell, with an additional 78 acres. The land, which was situated on the banks of the Nepean River, was named Agnes Banks by Thompson, after his mother Agnes Hilson. Thompson then rented the fertile land out to others who were engaged in agriculture. Andrew Thompson, it should be mentioned, was regarded as a notable person at nearby Windsor, where he was an entrepreneur; later he was appointed Chief Constable and then a Magistrate by Governor Macquarie. Thompson became known as the “Father of Windsor” and the first public square in Australia was named after him. But that is another story.

Yarramundi Lagoon, Agnes Banks

Andrew Thompson died in 1810 at Windsor and his land at Agnes Banks was sold to John Campbell, in 1815. Campbell commissioned two farmhouses to be built on the land by Thomas Howell, a local builder. Then, Ronald Barr purchased a part of the Agnes Banks property and named the house there “Osborne”.

Osborne homestead viewed from the garden, Agnes Banks, New South Wales, ca. 1970 [picture] / Wes Stacey. No Government Copyright Ownership

Bill's horse trough, Agnes Banks

In 1803, James Badgery also received a land grant at Agnes Banks, adjoining Andrew Thompson's farm and Charles Palmer was granted 100 acres near Yarramundi Lagoon. The grant initially comprised 100 acres (40 ha) of land in the area of Yarramundi Lagoon and then an additional 39 acres (16 ha) was granted the following year. Badgery established a successful farm at Agnes Banks which he called, Swilly Farm. He received no government assistance and managed to endure the 1806 flood with little financial loss. However, Badgery did lease out part of this farm in 1806 to the First Fleet couple, Anthony and Elizabeth Rope. Anthony and Elizabeth are buried in the Castlereagh Anglican Cemetery. A novel called, In For The Long Haul, is written about the couple. See below.

Robert Williams and his wife Charlotte (Eather), who had been baptised by Rev Samuel Marsden, bought the land at Angus Banks in 1838. Charlotte's daughter Mary Ann from her first marriage to Joseph Windsor married William Freeman in 1833 and they also lived on the Agnes Banks property, which was subdivided. Robert Eather Williams, the son of Robert and Charlotte Williams, murdered his brother-in-law at Agnes Banks on February 22, 1881.

MURDER BY A MADMAN AT
AGNES BANKS.
(HAWKESBURY CHRONICLE )

A horrible murder was committed at Agnes
Banks, on Tuesday, the 22nd ult, by Robert
Wiiliams, brother-in-law of the victim, William
Freeman, an old man with a large family, and
much respected in the district. It appears that
the murdered man was husking corn in the
granary at his residence at Agnes Bank. which
the murderer used as his bedroom. On Tuesday
morning some altercation is supposed to have
taken place between deceased and Williams, Mrs
Freeman, wife of the murdered man, and sister of
Robert Williams, hearing a noise up in the
grainary, went out to ascertain the cause, when she
saw her husband lying with his head against a
heap of unshucked corn. Blood was flowing from
his head profusely. She saw Robert Williams
walk away from where her husband was lying who.
was then in a dying state, and never spoke. A
son of the deceased went to Richmond to inform the
police Dr Jockel was soon in attendance, but
life was then extinct. On receipt of information
Senior-constable McNeely and constable Miles
started for the scene of the murder. They found
Williams lying on the roadside about a mile from
the granary where the affair took place,

Nepean Times Penrith, NSW : 1882 - 1962), Thursday 9 December 1948, 

The Riverine Herald (Echuca, Vic. : Moama, NSW : 1869 - 1954; 1998 - 1999) Tue 8 Mar 1881

John Williams purchased the Tyreel property; part of the original Anges Bank property, at Agnes Banks in 1879 and built a house in 1880, planting a magnolia tree which lived for many years. The property was named after a cattle property owned by Williams in Moree. The Tyreel farm was used for an orchard, dairying, lucerne and other crops. Later, a cattle farm and horse stud.

The late Victorian farmhouse named Chestnut was built at Agnes Banks around 1880 in Flemish bond brickwork.

In 1910, about 1000 people lived in the Agnes Banks area and there were about 200 houses. In the 1940s, a man named Tex Morton operated The Dude Ranch, which featured entertainment and a guest house.  

Another historic building in the Agnes Banks area is called Bronte. The property which was originally called Nelson Farm on a hundred acres of land granted to Thomas Pitt in 1802. However, the property was amalgamated with land granted to the mother of Thomas, Mary Pitt and renamed Bronte. The Pitt family had connections with Lord Nelson and had at one stage named two of their farms, Nelson and Trafalgar. (see here)

The first application for a government school in the Agnes Banks area was made in 1874. It was named Yarramundi School until it closed in 1908. The school reopened as Agnes Banks Public School in 1923, but finally closed in 1970. The building is now privately owned.

Only three chimneys still survive from the simple cottage belonging to Charles Palmer, the schoolmaster, which was built on 100 acres of land granted by Governor King, in 1803.

Charles Palmer's house around the year 2000

Remains of Charles Palmer, the schoolmaster's house, Agnes Bank, 2016

There were once several churches at Agnes Banks. The Anglican Church was transported to the Richmond Campus of the University of Western Sydney in 1991. The church that was built on land donated by Henry Farlow, to be used by any Christian denomination, was demolished in the 1970s. Henry Farlow established Farlow’s Butchery in South Windsor in about 1893 and he lived on the Crowley estate at Agnes Bank. Some of the street names in Agnes banks are in memory of various early settlers to the area. Earlier settlers in the area include: Ison, Eaton, Baldwin, Town, Moses, Quinn, Gough, Eather, Wood, Ezzy, Hough, Onus, Phipps, Huxley, Griffiths, Timmins, Devlin and Clough.

254 Yarramundi Lane, Agnes Banks. Circa 1860

354 Castlereagh Road, Agnes Banks

Tyreel, Agnes Banks

The General Darling Inn, now private residence, Agnes Banks, circa 1820?

The General Darling Inn was built about 1820 at Agnes Banks and the first licensee was Robert Aull in 1830 until June 1839, when John Wheeler took over the hotel.

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