Waves of People: Exploring the Movements and Patterns of Migration That Have Shaped Parramatta Through Time

Parramatta is a place of deep belonging, for over a thousand generations of Aboriginal families, with a rich history of waves of settlement coming from across the globe in more recent years. It is the place where Aboriginal peoples lived through intense climatic and social changes, adapting first to a changing landscape, then to a comprehensive period of colonisation and massive disruption. Parramatta was Australia’s first inland European settlement, often described as the ‘cradle of the colony’. The early development of Parramatta played a vital role in shaping and sustaining the growth of the fledgling colony – including as a source of food for starving settlers. Following the first arrival of Europeans, successive waves of migration have shaped the culture and identity of the city in vital ways, and it is Parramatta’s role as a gathering place for many different cultures that is now to be celebrated and reaffirmed into the future. Parramatta is now home to many people with many different pasts. This report captures the key historical movements and waves of migration that have shaped Parramatta’s identity as the diverse, multicultural city it is today. The report addresses four main areas of interest: ”¢ Movements of Aboriginal peoples in the Parramatta area around early contact time of the first British settlement of 1788; ”¢ Movements of Aboriginal peoples in and out of the Parramatta area from 1788 to the present, and the layers of reasons for those movements; ”¢ Waves of immigration to Parramatta of non-Aboriginal people, including migrants and refugees, and; ”¢ The impact of events in Parramatta on the surrounding Sydney basin, NSW and Australia since 1788.