My name is David Senior and I have lived in the Parramatta area all my life. Local area history has always been of great interest to me, to the extent that sometimes I bore my family with the fascinating information found or the great mysteries resolved.
I have volunteered as a guide at Old Government House in Parramatta Park since 1998 and since 2017 had the opportunity be more involved in my favourite interest.
I commenced volunteering at the Parramatta History and Heritage Centre in March 2018. I have worked on several projects including writing profiles of Parramatta veterans from First and Second World Wars, suburb histories and migration program from Spain - Martha Plan.
Through these projects information about Parramatta is made available to a much wider audience that helps promote Parramatta and its history. It was gratifying to receive a request from my local Probus group to make a presentation about the local area after they read my suburb profile on Dundas Valley and Baulkham Hills.
The successful completion of these projects is due the large collection of books, photographs, clipping files, digitised records that are held at the Centre. I have gained a much better understanding of our city and its people who were born, lived, worked, married, and died here, all making Parramatta be Parramatta.
The team at the Centre are a wonderful, knowledgeable, and dedicated group. We have a wonderful time each week discussing current issues, researching, and exchanging ideas and theories. It looks like I will be volunteering here for a long time to come.
David Senior, Parramatta Heritage Centre, City of Parramatta, 2021