Llandilo, New South Wales

Llandilo is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 54 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith. It is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Llandilo is a small semi-rural outcrop between two creeks.

History

Llandilo is named after the Welsh town of Llandeilo.

Aboriginal culture

Prior to European settlement, what is now Llandilo was home to the Mulgoa people who spoke the Darug language. They lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. Their homes were bark huts called 'gunyahs'. They hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants. Shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia in 1788, an outbreak of smallpox decimated the local indigenous communities and made it easier for settlers to disposses them of their land.

European settlement

The first land grant in the area was made to Samuel Terry in 1818. He named the area Terry Brook. By the 1860s it was known as Llandilo after a Welsh town. While the landholdings have reduced in size down to around one or 2 acres (8,100 m²), the area is still primarily rural as it has been for the past 200 years or so.