Carlingford is 22 kilometres (14 mi) north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of City of Parramatta.

[3] References to Aboriginal people in the Carlingford historical record in the 18th, 19th and into the 20th century remain limited to a handful of third party observations, reinterpreted in modern day.

[7] Evidence of fire-stick burn off (whereby native vegetation is cleared through fire to create grasslands) along the northern banks of the Parramatta River were observed in February 1788 by an exploring boat party headed by Captain John Hunter and Lieutenant William Bradley[8] in such places which became known as Kissing Point and Meadowbank.

[9] The grasslands created by the Aboriginals' burn off encouraged animals to graze and enhanced the ease of hunting and gathering.

Around and above these pastures backing up into the Carlingford area were thick, tall stands of Blue Gum High Forest.

A military post was established at Parramatta in November 1788 which resulted in a group of Burramattagal people moving into Wallumedegal area at Kissing Point.

The fluidity in district names in the colonial period reflected changes in the patterns of land use and access to the area as the process of colonisation proceeded.

Brush Farm on the later border between Carlingford and Eastwood took its name from this usage and was applied to the estate (c. early 1800s) and then the house on the land (c.1820s).

[25] By that date, the name Carlingford had become associated with the locality up to North Rocks and Pennant Hills referred to the area beyond.

Over the 1790s land grants for farms in the Parramatta area extended to what is now known as the Carlingford district, Kissing Point, North Brush, The Ponds, Field of Mars.

Hard labour was required to clear land of the thick bush and then to cultivate, fence and provide housing.

Orange, other citrus, stone fruit, apple and pear orchards were common interspersed with crops such as potatoes and peas.

Familiar names in the district, often from a convict background, had set down roots including the Mobbs, Eyles, Spurway, Sonter and other families.

Other economic activity in the district[35] included timber getting from around 1817 with the government convict sawmill operating until about 1830 at the Pennant Hills Sawing Establishment at Barren Ridges (Epping).

A public telephone and telegraph service at the Carlingford Post Office began in December 1892[36] and gas mains were entering the district[37] around the same time.

On the eve of Federation, Carlingford was struggling through the great 1890s economic depression but was poised to once again become a prosperous agricultural district.

It had a private railway to take goods to market, '... a public school with 235 scholars and staff of six teachers, telephone and money order office, two lines of coaches, five stores, and blacksmith and baker's shop'.

While Carlingford was still distinctly rural, technological change in the district continued with the establishment of the Pennant Hills Wireless Telegraphy Station in 1912,[41] extension of telephone lines, and the arrival of electric power in 1922.

A Mechanics' Institute and Memorial Hall, designed by Sydney architect and Carlingford resident Lord Livingstone Ramsay,[47] was opened at Mobbs Hill in 1924[48] (demolished 1987) and was the centre of many social events, political rallies, fetes and school activities.

Boys' Home buildings and grounds are now the regional base and Sydney Australia Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

More recently, in the 1990s, the government policy of urban consolidation has seen the development of high-density units and apartment blocks around the town centre and the train station.

In 1961, the HMS K13 memorial was unveiled, and stands as a prominent feature in Carlingford, passed by thousands of motorists along Pennant Hills Road each day.

Additional redevelopments of the centre occurred in the late 1990s with further changes when the Myer department store closed on 31 March 2006.

The rural guise of the district has largely disappeared: rapid urbanisation, subdivision, population growth and advent of car clogged roads has changed the area completely.

[50] The Cumberland Highway, a major north–south route through greater Sydney, intersects Carlingford in the form of Pennant Hills Road.

As well, many motorists commuting from the Hills District and the growing north-west areas of Sydney travel through Carlingford to the city.

As part of the CityRail Clearways Project, a passing loop was promised for the Carlingford Line with two services per hour all day to become effective in 2010.

[56] In the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 census, the population of Carlingford stood at 28,044 residents, with 13,912 males and 14,132 females.