At the head of the river were the Burramattagal (or Barramattagal) of the Parramatta district, while to their west and north lived the Bidjigal who were known in both the Castle Hill and Botany areas.

Male food-gathering activities ranged from trapping and hunting native animals to collecting bull ants and their eggs and larvae of the longicorn beetle (the witchetty grub).

[1] Toongabbie Creek was situated in an alluvial valley running eastwards from Prospect to the sea that was dominated by stands of tall timber with gullies providing humid and fire-free conditions.

The turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera) and the coachwood or scented satinwood (Ceratopetalum apetalum) were common, as were the lillypilly (Acmena smithii) and the water gum (Tristaniopsis laurina).

[2][1] Governor Phillip's 1787 instructions to "proceed to the cultivation of the land" immediately, using convict labour resulted in the early establishment of government farms.

[3][1] In 1791 Governor Phillip appointed Thomas Daveney to select, plan and superintend a more extensive "second settlement" further up the Toongabbie Creek, about 4 km north-west of the New Grounds.

Here 500 convicts, most of whom were newly arrived on the Third Fleet, cleared 300 acres of forest in 30 days in late 1791, burning off the timber and planting the first crop of turnips to prepare the ground for maize.

[9][1] Convicts were employed in raising grain, maintaining the township infrastructure and in looking after the government stock of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.

80 years after its closure, Ned Kelly, in his Jerilderie letter, "placed Toongabbie in the larger story of worldwide Irish suffering at the hands of the English".

He led raids on farms around Lane Cove, Bankstown, Georges River, Parramatta and Prospect, attacking, burning and plundering huts, crops, and livestock.

Grose discontinued centralised government farming, granted land to military and civil officers, officials and settlers, allotted the majority of the convict workforce to them, and encouraged them to raise cereal crops, to be purchased by the Commissariat Store.

[21][1] Macquarie closed down most convict-run public agriculture but retained a government interest in owning substantial numbers of cattle and sheep in new stock-yards to be built at locations removed from towns and settlers.

[22][1] Macquarie retained his interest in Toongabbie, however, requesting the now disused site (but no convict labour or livestock) as a land grant on his resignation "on account of the beauty of the Situation and the contiguity to the seat of Government, it being only 17 miles west of Sydney".

[27][1] George Oakes was a significant figure in local and state affairs who sat in the New South Wales Parliament from 1848 off and on until his death in 1881, mostly in the Legislative Council.

He constructed a stone weir across Toongabbie Creek (at the site of the present concrete dam) to create a private swimming pool for his family.

Several Chinese market gardeners have been identified, mainly belonging to three families who worshipped together at St John's Anglican Church in Parramatta.

Since the land immediately adjacent to Toongabbie Creek was liable to recurrent flood, it was not developed and reverted to public use from the 1920s onwards as a series of reserves.

Land north of Toongabbie Creek became Palestine Park which was named in conjunction with the streets of the adjacent subdivision (Goliath, Gideon, Rebecca, Reuben, Ruth, Esther and Enoch).

The western end of the convict farm site was acquired for construction of a substantial electricity transmission substation, now owned by Endeavour Energy.

[1] Most of the curtilage south and west of Toongabbie Creek has remained cleared for two centuries and comprises Oakes Reserve (also known as Settlers Walk) which is covered with regularly mown grass.

[1] On the northern side of the creek, in Palestine Park, there is a highly modified remnant of Cumberland Plain Woodland (a Critically Endangered Ecological Community) interrupted by several clearings including one for a children's playground opposite the intersection of Goliath Avenue and Gideon Street.

[1] The only signage relating directly to the convict farm is on the east bank of the creek close to the rock steps, erected by Parramatta City Council.

[1] On the north side of Toongabbie Creek, the southern sections of the convict granary complex (built in 1793, blown down in 1795 and replaced in 1797) and the superintendent's quarters lay within the present Palestine Park between the intersection of Goliath Avenue with Reuben and Esther Streets.

[1] The Toongabbie Government Farm Archaeological Site is of State heritage significance for its capacity to demonstrate strategies developed during the foundation years of the colonial settlement by Governor Phillip to best use convict workers outside an urban area.

Because of its critical role in feeding the struggling early colony by its production of wheat, maize and barley, the historical significance of Toongabbie Government Farm in the years 1791 to 1794 is especially high.

[1] Toongabbie Government Farm Archaeological Site was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 11 December 2012 having satisfied the following criteria.

Toongabbie Government Farm represents an important phase in the early deployment of convict labour and the hierarchy of administration outside the two urban centres.

The Toongabbie Government Farm Archaeological Site has strong associations with persons of state significance, being all five of the earliest colonial Governors, and the Lieutenant-Governor, from 1791 to 1821, and with the legendary Aboriginal warrior Pemulwuy of the Bidjigal clan.

Governor Phillip, who had been charged with the foundation of the colony and providing the material means for its survival in the critical early years after 1788, planned and created the new convict farm in 1791.

[1] The first private owner of the site, George Oakes from 1861 to 1881, is a person of considerable local significance as a parliamentarian, pastoralist, businessman and Commissioner at three international exhibitions.