After the outbreak of World War II the training farm was taken over the Commonwealth with the 73rd Australian Anti Aircraft Search Light Company and the RAAF 244 1ST Parachute Battalion being stationed there.

The area along the Hawkesbury Rivers and its tributaries provided fertile alluvial soils sustaining consistent supplies of food for the local Aboriginal people from the fish and wildlife stock and edible vegetation.

This was due to a number of reasons most significantly, mortality from introduced diseases and migration of the Dharug out of the area because of the disruption to traditional lifestyle and competition for natural resources.

It was declared the Pitt Town Village Settlement, operating as a cooperative farm, established to allow the unemployed and their families to make a living during the economic depression of the 1890s.

Each family was expected to work the common land, clear and tend their own small allotment and contribute to the construction of community facilities in exchange for a set ration of food.

tell a resonant and significant story in the history of NSW as they were radical and often controversial government responses to social problems experienced by families and individuals in the economic depression of the 1890s.

They first moved to a Staging Camp in Brisbane and then to Townsville where on 29 December 1942 they boarded the MV Duntroon and were shipped to New Guinea where they served at Port Moresby, Nadzab and Lae during 1943 and 1944.

Their most commended function by both the Australian and American forces was their work guiding Allied aircraft, damaged in battle, back to their bases in Port Moresby and Lae.

[4] Under the command of Lt. Col. Sir John Overall CBE, MC & Bar, a seasoned and distinguished Officer, the Company moved out of Scheyville in late 1944 eventually arriving at Canungra where they received training in jungle combat.

The installation of a sewage plant and electrical network during the post-WWII phases of use allowed the migrant camp and the later Officer Training Unit to operate as an almost self sufficient community.

The Officer Training Unit continued to function until 1973 (the last intake was October 1972 to March 1973), after the Australian Labor Party abolished further National Service in December 1972.

[4] Early management practices of the National Parks and Wildlife Service reflected the organisation's primary concern at the time, the conservation of natural values of items under its care.

To the north west of the site on a ridge between Pitt Town and Avondale roads is a small area of Castlereagh Scribbly Gum Woodland which is considered as vulnerable.

Between Llewellyn Creek, Longneck Lagoon and Avondale road there is Shale /Gravel Transition Forest vegetation containing 2 vulnerable species, Dilwynia tenuifolia and Acacia pubescens.

These include;[4] Archaeological evidence and remnants of the Pitt Town Village Settlement, Casual Labour Farm and the early phase of the Scheyville Government Agricultural Training School are found in the basin near Longneck Creek to the southeast of the quadrangle buildings.

The boilers located near the SAARS huts remain standing in a state of deterioration due to the destruction of the building originally containing them and their subsequent exposure to the elements.

[4] The areas now Scheyville National Park and Pitt Town Nature Reserve, like much of the fertile Cumberland Plain, have been subject to vegetation clearing since the early days of European settlement in Australia.

Species include African love grass (Eragrostis curvula), blackberry (Rubus fruticosus), lantana (Lantana camara), bridal veil creeper (Myrsiphyllum asparagoides), mother-of-millions (Bryophyllum syksii), prickly pear (Opuntia stricta), paspalum (Paspalum dilatatum), kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum), common couch (Cynodon dactylon), willow (Salix spp.

[4] Introduced animals observed in the national park and nature reserve include the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), cat (Felis catus), dog (Canis familiaris), rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), brown hare (Lepis capensis), black rat (Rattus rattus), house mouse (Mus musculus), starling (Sturnus vulgaris), sparrow (Passer domesticus) and Indian myna (Acridotheres tristis).

The park also contains a number of historic features and places which demonstrate the early settlement of the Cumberland Plain, farming, defence and migrant uses of the area, and is significant as a relatively large surviving element of the first commons declared in the colony.

The park also contains a number of historic features and places which demonstrate the early settlement of the Cumberland Plain, farming, defence and migrant uses of the area, and is significant as a relatively large surviving element of the first commons declared in the colony.

[4] The Commander of the 1st Parachute Battalion, the first airborne combat troop in Australia which was encamped at Scheyville was Lt. Col. Sir John Overall who had received the Military Cross and Bar for distinguished Service in WWII.

[4] The first and longest Commandant of the OTU at Scheyville was Brigadier Ian Geddes, a soldier with a long and distinguished record of active service during WWII both in Europe and Asia, during the Malayan Emergency and finally in Vietnam.

In Vietnam he headed a team of 128 members of the Australian Assistance Group whose task it was to instruct South Vietnamese and Cambodian Troops before the ceasefire discussion were concluded.

Scheyville National Park is of state significance as an extensive landscape of woodlands and wetlands that crown the high land above the rural and village countryside of the Pitt Town Bottoms and the Hawkesbury Valley.

Within the park the landscapes have aesthetic value for the combinations of eucalypt woodlands, open grasslands and shady glades with reedy water bodies and many evident birds and other wildlife.

Because of its height above the surrounding plains and valleys, there are clear views over the Hawkesbury River and villages such as Pitt Town and Windsor towards the rugged escarpments and peaks of the Blue Mountains.

[4] The inter-war period built complex in the centre of the national park has aesthetic significance as an example of institutional design in a Mediterranean style, with all the principal buildings hierarchically arranged around a central courtyard on top of a commanding knoll.

A demonstration of the lasting association many migrants have with the place was the very well attended "Back to Scheyville Day" held in 2005 where many people revisited their experience of first settling in Australia and reconnected with old friends and acquaintances.

There is archaeology and remnant fabric relating to its 3 phases of use as a Government Agricultural Training Farm for British youth and also of its periods of military use and as a Migrant Holding Centre.