Pennant Hills Wharf

A wharf in Pennant Hills? You’ve got to be joking!

Although the current suburb of Pennant Hills contains creeks, there’s certainly no body of water sizeable enough to warrant the construction of a wharf. But believe it or not, there was a Pennant Hills Wharf. Indeed it still exists.

Fruit loading at wharf

The early maps of the Parramatta River show a wharf near Ermington House called Pennant Hills Wharf. It was located at the end of modern-day Wharf Road, Melrose Park, between Ermington and Meadowbank.

Built by convict labour the wharf was a very important mechanism for transporting food. Crops such as fruit, vegetables and chickens were transported by wheelbarrows and later horse-drawn carts to be loaded onto boats. From there the food was sent to Parramatta and Sydney.

The sandstone-block foundations of the wharf can still be seen today at low tide next to the modern timber wharf.

So, why is it called Pennant Hills Wharf when it’s not anywhere near Pennant Hills? Well back in the very early 1800s the area immediately to the north of the Parramatta River was referred to as “the Pennant Hills”. Over time the name drifted north to its current location while the wharf, or what’s left of it, has remained behind.

Trevor Patrick is a local historian of the north-west of Sydney, Australia. His latest book, In Search of the Pennant Hills, recounts some of these stories (and others) in more detail.