Name

Road Type

Name Origin

Calf Farm

Circuit

This land was known and called Calf Farm from early settlement of Menangle and can be seen on very old maps. Menangle had the largest pure breed dairy cattle centre in Australia with 1200 head in 1932. The Menangle area has one of the highest concentrations of historically significant sites in rural Australia dating back as far as the first fleet. Later it was an integral part of Australia’s ground breaking first pastoral company, the Macarthur’s Camden Park Estate.

Cape Cattle

Lane

First Fleet Cattle - Black Cape Cattle - Two bulls and four cows escaped from the First Fleet settlement at Farm Cove, 5 months after the First Fleet’s arrival, in May 1788. The cattle travelled some 40 miles through undeveloped country to Menangle. The settlers were entertained by Aboriginal dancers dancing “the dance of the bulls.” They were seen by the Aboriginal people but were first sighted by a convict hunter in 1795, some seven years after they escaped, and they had multiplied to about forty cows and two bulls.1795, Governor Hunter came to see them and named the hill he climbed Mt Taurus. He also then named the area the “Cowpastures”. Once caught, this was the first occasion that the new Sydney colony ate fresh beef. Governor Hunter made it a crime to kill these cattle, so they could multiply and to preserve the food. It was then that he realized the colony would survive. The area was declared a government reserve to enable the cattle to continue to multiply. Only the Macarthur’s and the Davidson’s were authorized to cross the Nepean River after 1805 when their grants were received, but the government surveyor James Meehan noted there was an established track to the region.

Halfpenny

Drive

Commemorative naming: Russell James Halfpenny –  Russell and his wife Helen were long standing farmers and owners of large lots of land in Menangle and in the shire. Helen and Russell had 5 children, Lyndall, Cameron, Danielle, Gina and Scott. Helen Mae Halfpenny sadly passed away a few years ago (16/8/1942 - 28/8/2016).Russell Halfpenny passed away a few years later (17/2/1933 - 27/11/2021). The Halfpenny family descendants still reside in the Shire today.

Butter

Lane

1883-1948 Butter Factory  - the first butter factory in NSW was in Menangle . It became the Central Creamery in 1948. It produced the first commercial brand of butter in Australia called “Laurel”.

Milk

Lane

Menangle had the first and largest milking dairy in Australia. Menangle became the chief milk receiving depot and the largest supplier of milk to Sydney in the early years. There was a piggery farm in Menangle as pigs were raised to consume the waste.

Fettlers

Lane

The goods shed was located practically on the site of the present goods shed. The stationmaster at Menangle was Mr. John Beeston, who was associated with the company formed to build the first railway in the colony. There were two houses within the railway enclosure immediately north of the railway station house. These were occupied by fettlers.