Australia - Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct

Parramatta is situated on the traditional land of the Burramatta clan of the Dharug people. The Dharug occupied land from Botany Bay to Picton in the south and Springwood in the west for many thousands of years prior to European settlement. The Burramatta had a close connection with the Parramatta River, which provided fresh water and fish, eels and other riverine resources. The potential World Heritage property represents part of their core territory, on which they hunted, collected resources and materials for tools, and established camps and settlements. The local Aboriginal people have continuing cultural associations over this large area which is now the home to millions of people from many parts of the world. The property also has spiritual significance and intangible cultural heritage, with the riverbanks near the Norma Parker Centre known to have been a site of women’s ceremony.

British colonisation of this part of the Australian continent occurred in the late 18th century. The park-like landscape which British settlers encountered had been shaped by Aboriginal fire-stick farming and harvesting traditions. Despite two centuries of destructive European land use practices and the dispossession of the Dharug and other Aboriginal people, they maintain strong connections to this country today. Aboriginal people, convicts and migrants are all present in the histories of this place from the 19th century to the present.