Third Government Farm

Castle Hill Heritage Park is significant principally for its association with the participants in the Castle Hill convict rebellion,[1] also known as the Second Battle of Vinegar Hill.

The Second Battle of Vinegar Hill holds a seminal, but only relatively recently recognised, place in Australian ethnic, religious and political history. The Second Battle of Vinegar Hill is the only recorded armed battle between Europeans in Australia, other than the Eureka Stockade, although there were bigger battles between Europeans and indigenous Australians up until the 1930s. The Second Battle of Vinegar Hill involved approximately 300 mainly Irish insurgents, most of whom had been transported for sedition, political activism and uprisings in Ireland, and of whom fifteen were shot, nine hanged, nine flogged (200-500 lashes each), and fifty sent in chains to Coal River (later renamed Newcastle) for their part in the uprising. The insurgents battled with the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps and the militia.[1]

The reasons for the uprising remain unclear. "Death or Liberty" was the catchphrase used by the insurgents during the Rebellion and the popular view has been that the uprising was a bid for freedom in response to cruel punishments and food shortages. This, however, is perhaps too narrow and simplistic a view given the demographics of the convict population. It is likely that the uprising was a largely political act of organised revolution by the largely Irish National convict population who did not recognise English authority in Ireland, and had been transported for their involvement in political uprisings in the Old Country. The view that to the Irish Defenders and the Society of the United Irishmen, all English authority was illegitimate, unjust and their natural state was to resist it, both at home and in the colonies, is a plausible, wider view of events.[1]

It is still not certain why the uprising took place. There are few official and public records on this point dating to the Rebellion, due to age and circumstance and probably because of the potential embarrassment to Governor King whose policy to concentrate Irish political prisoners in a single remote location could have been seen by London and the Colonial Secretary as naive (which it almost certainly was). Those participants who were not executed as a deterrent were separated and dispersed after the Rebellion to ensure such group action was unlikely ever to again occur. Their story has never been adequately told.[1]

It is fascinating, however, that such an important episode in Colonial history has gone largely unrecognised and un-commemorated for so long. This may relate to political and religious trends in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[2][1]

The following important events took place on the site:[1][2]

• 1801 – work commenced on the Third Government Farm, with the soil being described as the "best and most productive kind".
• 1801-2 – the bridges, long hut of 30.5 by 6.1 metres (100 by 20 ft) and watering place were referred to in a surveyors field book.
• October 1802 – Francis Peron described Castle Hill as an "infant town" consisting of "a dozen houses" with "cultivated land" and 'several handsome farms'
• 1803 – a watercolour indicated that the Government Farm area was substantially cleared with 1718 structures, tracks and associated areas under tillage. Importantly, the image shows the "long hut" with adjacent store house and mill house.
• 30 June 1803 – Governor King reported that he was constructing a stone barrack at Castle Hill of two storeys and 30.5 by 7.3 metres (100 by 24 ft).
• August 1803 – the Barracks was still under construction
• 4 March 1804 – Vinegar Hill uprising occurred, with a "house" set alight on the Government Farm.
• August 1806 – barracks building was possibly converted into barn.
• August 1807 – repairs to a number of buildings occurred, as well as the granary and barn reported finished.
• April 1811 – Macquarie instructed the farm be converted into an asylum and a garden fenced at rear of granary for exercise of inmates, with the building to accommodate 30 persons.
• June 1811 – conversion reported complete.
• 1814 – buildings reported in bad condition by Surgeon Bland.
• 1817 – buildings reported in good condition (with a few repairs needed), with mention of a kitchen (separate?) and the need for partitions in the upper storey to create an internal configuration of two wards and a store room.
• March 1819 – building reported as upstairs female ward and need for partition to separate male inmates upstairs as well, store recommended. Roof and walls unplastered with damp conditions.
• 182 – Commissioner Bigge recommended the closure of the asylum.
• 1826 – asylum closed and inmates moved to Liverpool Courthouse.
• November 1826 – the former asylum was converted into a church requiring a replacement roof, shingling, ladder and rail, replacement of floors, partitioning, door furniture, window repairs and glazing, clean verandah beams and new posts, whitewashing and plastering of two rooms 18.3 by 5.5 metres (60 by 18 ft) and one 13.7 by 5.5 metres (45 by 18 ft) feet.
• 1828 – former asylum land formally conveyed to the Church and Schools Corporation.
• 2-5 May 1832 – former asylum surveyed by Felton Mathew showing school, bridge, former asylum building and ruins (kitchen?).
• September 1832 – building reported as in dilapidated condition.
• November 1837 – H. L. Butler resurveyed the land and set aside 16 hectares (40 acres) as a glebe.
• September 1839 – building reported as being converted into a chapel to be called St Simon's.
• c. 1886 – the old asylum building was demolished, with stone reportedly transported to construct the rectory for St Paul's Anglican Church.
• 1895 – first part of the 16 hectares (40 acres) glebe sold to orchardist, J. T. Benn.
• 1900 – the remainder was sold to James Purser.
• 1930s – orcharding declined and site was given over to pasturage during later 1930s and 40s.
• Between 1947 and 1961 – a large mushroom shed was constructed to the northeast of the barracks site with a vehicular entrance to the east of the site along the right of way.
• By 1961 – a small fibro cottage with brick piers was constructed on the barracks site.
• 1966 – the dwarf wall at the rear of the cottage allotment along the right-of-way was constructed possibly of sandstone from the barracks site at the same time and in a similar fashion to the stone wall at the parsonage.

In 2004, the new-look park, 20 hectares of rolling landscaped hills and remnant Blue Gum forest, known as Castle Hill Heritage Park, was refurbished at a cost of more than $3.4 million. It was opened by the Governor of New South Wales, Professor Marie Bashir, in March 2004.[3]

As at 27 October 2008, Castle Hill Heritage Park is important in the course or pattern of the state's history for its close connection with the events leading up to the Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1804 (also comprising an important event in the Irish nationalist movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). The historical importance of the site is enhanced by its place in the westward expansion of the early colony, using convict labour, when sometimes faltering and often unsuccessful attempts were made at the introduction and development of agriculture in previously unsettled and only recently explored areas. Later uses of the site as the nation's first dedicated mental health facility (the 'Asylum Phase') (1811-1828) enhances the site's historical significance. The site's conversion to use for a church and school (1828-1866) and then adaptation for orcharding (1870-1930) are also important historical "layers", principally at the local level.[1]

Castle Hill Heritage Park is Exceptionally significant at the state level for its strong associations with the rebels who participated in the Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1804 and, more generally, with the early convict labourers and Irish of the colony. The site's later associations with the first mental health patients of the nation, and with the prominent colonial polymath Rev WB Clarke, are also significant at the state level. Associations between the site and the local community from 1828 into the late twentieth century (when it functioned as the district Church and then orchards) are also significant, although principally at the local level.[1]

Castle Hill Heritage Park recalls in its topography, land forms and remnant structures the original layout and form of the Third Government Farm. As a result, it reflects the nineteenth century cultural landscape and demonstrates, at a state level of significance, the principal characteristics of the rural aesthetic of the period.[1]

The orcharding phase of the site may be of social significance to those members of the community that are descendants of the earlier orchardists of the area. Further, the school and church were for many years focal points for the community after the closure of the barracks and asylum.[1]

The archaeological relics identified at Castle Hill, and other relics potentially on the site but not yet exposed, hold considerable potential to contribute to substantive research questions relating to important trends in the state's (and nation's) history, including the treatment of the convicts and mental health patients incarcerated at the site, the circumstances precipitating the Battle of Vinegar Hill, early attempts at agriculture west of Sydney, and (at the local level) the settlement and later development of the area around Castle Hill.[1]

The site represents an uncommon aspect of the state's (and nation's) history, in that it is one of only two places in the country where armed rebellion was planned and commenced. Similarly, it was the first Lunatic Asylum in the colony, and rare to that extent, although later examples also existed. The cultural landscape at the site also comprises an uncommon example of a relatively unchanged (in terms of topography and later development) convict farm site.[1]

Castle Hill Heritage Park is important at the State level as a representative example of a relatively unchanged (in terms of topography and later development) convict farm site. Its remnant cultural landscape is a good example of the nineteenth century convict farm settlement.[1][2]

The Third Government Farm was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 December 2000.[1]

• History of Sydney
• Castle Hill convict rebellion

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Castle Hill Heritage Park.

• Castle Hill Heritage Park Interpretation Plan. The Hills Shire Council. Accessed 6 October 2019.
• Castle Hill Heritage Park. History Services Blog. Accessed 6 October 2019.