The City of Parramatta’s Heritage Council Archives contains records of the Council dating from it's formation in 1861.
One of the oldest items within our Council Archives is a special land grant that predates the formation of the Council, created in 1854. This document is a significant primary record reflecting the history of the site where Parramatta Town Hall now stands.
The Traditional Owners of the land comprising present day Parramatta are the Burramadagal People and more broadly the Dharug People. Soon after Governor Phillip’s arrival with the First Fleet in 1788, Parramatta was developed as a farming settlement to feed the new colony. This colonisation led to the immediate and tragic displacement of local First Nations people from the land that they had inhabited for thousands of years.
By December 1812, Governor Macquarie formally reserved the area of land where Parramatta Town Hall stands for a town market, which opened in 1813. The Parramatta Market played an early role in local administration and was the first to operate under a commission.
This land grant, on parchment, is a special grant witnessed and signed by Charles Augustus Fitzroy “the Governor General of all our Australian possessions, Captain General and Governor-in-Chief of our territory of New South Wales.” The document records the transfer of ownership of the market site to the Parramatta Market Commissioners on the 11th of May, 1854.
In 1861, Parramatta Municipal Council was formed. The Parramatta Market was administered by commissioners until 1862, when no notice was posted for the triennial election and the system became defunct. In 1866, the Parramatta Market Act was passed which transferred the responsibility of the markets into the hands of the Parramatta Municipal Council.
The Parramatta Markets ceased to operate in 1878, and the following year an Act was passed to permit the council to build a Town Hall on the site.
Paige Davis, Heritage Archivist, 2023.
