In 1791 Governor Phillip appointed Superintendent Thomas Daveney to select, plan and superintend a more extensive “second settlement” further up the Toongabbie Creek. The second Government farm was built by convict labour from 1791 to 1813. It employed up to 500 convicts, mostly from the Third Fleet. The convicts were housed in 13 large tent huts and cleared 134 acres in 30 days. The farm then planted maize.
Like other government farms it was not established as a place of punishment. However it later acquired international notoriety as a place synonymous with slavery and famine and was included in the tracts of the anti-transportation and anti-slavery campaigners.
Superintendent Daveney was a hard taskmaster and drove his convicts relentlessly through his overseers. Newly arrived male convicts were sent direct to Toongabbie despite their emaciated condition after the long voyage. Hard labour combined with meagre rations led to many deaths.
Following Governor Phillip’s departure in December 1792, Lieutenant Governor Grose adopted a different agricultural policy. Grose discontinued centralised government farming. Toongabbie’s lands soon showed signs of exhaustion from repeated cereal cropping which gave Grose the opportunity to alienate land and reassign the convict work force.
Irish convict numbers had increased rapidly after the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Most these Irish political prisoners were sent to Toongabbie. The Irish planned several uprisings and were regarded as a disruptive element, threatening to desert at harvest time. In August 1801, Governor King advised the government that he had 50 men clearing land for a new Third Government Farm at Castle Hill to replace Toongabbie. The Irish prisoners were transferred to the new farm.
In 1803 official policy under Governor King saw public farming once again wound back in favour of private enterprise. While Toongabbie Government Farm closed for crop cultivation in 1803, government stock remained on the site until 1807, when Governor Bligh rebuilt the dairy and barn in 1807.
Governor Macquarie, arriving in 1810, re-appraised the whole system of government farms and he closed down most convict-run public agriculture but retained a government interest in owning substantial numbers of cattle and sheep in new stock-yards to be built at locations removed from towns and settlers. Stock was removed from Toongabbie in 1813 and in 1817 Macquarie permanently closed the farm.
Stamps & Postal Products
1988 The Early Years – 37c Government Farm, Parramatta 1791
