Nurragingy, Colebee, Pemulway

Nurragingy, Colebee, Pemulway

We ride from Doonside Station (Northern Side, Cross St, 9:30AM) to Nurragingy in the Western Sydney Parklands.

I will catch the T1 train at Strathfield at 8:55 arriving Doonside 9:29. The same train leaves Central at 8:41.

Up through the parklands to Dean Park, almost to the M7. Along Yarramundi Drive (Yarramundi was the father of Colebee and Maria Lock) to the path along Richmond Road to Colebee.

Colebee, the suburb, is the site of the original land grant to Colebee and Nurragingy by Macquarie. Later the land was taken up by Maria Lock, Colebee's sister.

"On 26 January 1824, Maria married carpenter Robert Lock at St John's church, Parramatta, the first official Aboriginal- British marriage in the colony. The marriage was even more unusual in that Robert, an illiterate convict, was assigned to Maria."

We view the land, the park and the plaques at Colebee suburb.

We then go back along the M7 cycle path to Quakers Hill Parkway, and take the parkland bike path to Blacktown. If you want to bail at this point, Blacktown station is a good option.

We then take the cycle path beside Blacktown Rd, divert before crossing the A44 and M4 to go through to Pemulway. Visible on the hill between the A44 and the M4, completely inaccessible by any other means than car, lies St Bartholomew's, where Maria Lock is buried.

We stop near Granatas Pemulway for lunch, at the park on the aptly named Watkin Tench Parade.

We then continue on to join the Guilford-Prospect Reservoir viaduct path to Guilford. At this point we would normally catch the train home. Unfortunately, trackwork is now being done on weekends, and on this weekend buses replace trains between Cabramatta and Granville. Instead we will ride along the bike path to Parramatta, where we can catch the train home or ride home.

Total length is around 50km, mostly on dedicated paths and quiet streets. Some of the bike paths are next to busy roads. There are two small sections, 200 metres, of roads, not highways.

You need a bike in good working order, helmet, water, sunscreen, spare tube.

Toilets at Doonside, at Nurragingy reserve, at the little mall in Colebee, then Pemulway.

There is a great deal of history behind this. If you are researching online (a very deep rabbit hole) just be aware there are two distinct Colobees in early colonial history.

Watkin Tench's journal describes the period 1788-1791. He writes: "Gombeere introduced the man and the boy from the canoe to us. The former was named Yellomundee". This is another transliteration of Yarramundi. Colebee and Maria Lock were children of Yarramundi.

Yarramundi's son Colebee assisted Macquarie in 1816 and received the land grant that year.

The other, earlier Colebee, mentioned many times and at length by Tench, was captured along with Benelong at Manly Cove on 25 November 1789 and held at Government House.