Emu Plains is on the western side of the Nepean River, located at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

They lived in huts made of bark called 'gunyahs', hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered yams, berries, and other native plants.

[3] The first British colonizers to visit the area surveyed Emu Plains in August 1790 led by Watkin Tench.

When Governor Lachlan Macquarie toured the area on the 15th of April 1814, he had realized the misconception and was the first to use the name Emu Plains.

William Cox started building a road over the Blue Mountains from Emu Plains on 18 July 1814.

[5] In the 1880's the Emu and Prospect Gravel and Road Metal company began removing stones from the Nepean River.

A railway siding, which was to be expanded into a short branch, was first laid in from the Main Western Line at Emu Plains in 1884.

Railway operations, which included the line's own locomotives, continued until 1967 when only a siding, shunted by government trains, remained.

In 1980 the Lewers' daughters donated the site, buildings, gardens and a substantial collection of art to Penrith City Council.

The services were initially held in the Emu Plains Community Centre, until the moved to Melrose Hall in 2005.

At the state level, it is part of the Electoral district of Penrith, represented by Karen McKeown of the Australian Labor Party.