Denfield is a heritage-listed former farm homestead complex, residence, inn and farm and now residence located at Appin Road, St Helens Park in the City of Campbelltown local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1837 by John Farley. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The original inhabitants of the area were mostly people of the Tharawal (sometimes referred to as Dharawal) people, who ranged from the coast to the east, the Georges River in the west, north to Botany Bay and south to Nowra. However Campbelltown was a meeting point with the Dharug language group (whose area extended across the Blue Mountains) and early history of the area includes references to both peoples.
With establishment of the convict colony in Sydney in 1788 the displacement of Aboriginal people began. A smallpox epidemic decimated many of the coastal clans, but was less destructive amongst the inland peoples.
Escaped cattle from the convict settlement moved south and bred in the Campbelltown/Camden area and after their (re-) discovery in 1795, the area became known as the "Cow Pastures" (or Cowpasture). In 1805 Jon Macarthur obtained a grant of (later expanded to ) in the area, some of the best grazing land then known in the colony.
By 1809 34 settlers had received grants in the newly named Minto district (named after Lord Minto, the Governor-General of India) in the northern portion of Campbelltown. Many of these were Irish, including surveyor James Meehan, who allocated himself a generous portion (now Macquarie Fields). Prominent settlers included Charles Throsby, who was allocated (now Glenfield), Dr. William Redfern (Campbellfield), Dr. John Townson (Varroville (homestead)) and Richard Brooks (Denham Court).
Though peaceful, the Tharawal people bore the brunt of a punitive expedition led by Captain James Wallis in 1816. At least 14 Tharawal people were massacred at the Appin Massacre, to the distress of sympathetic settlers such as Throsby of Glenfield. Corroborees and other ceremonies continued under the protection of the Macarthurs of Camden Park, though numbers steadily declined.
As the district became more densely settled a town was needed further south than Liverpool. Campbelltown was formally established in 1820 and named in honour of Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie's maiden name, Campbell. In 1826 the town plan was formalised.
Denfield
The original house and a roofed but open sided link to the original kitchen block behind it, was completed between 1835-7 by a John Farley.
Farley arrived from England in 1812 and became what was described at the time as a "sober, hard working and prosperous farmer" on approximately . His claim to fame was that he was the first man to see 'Fisher's Ghost',('sitting on a rail of a bridge over a creek. He claimed the ghost pointed to a paddock down the creek then faded away. The body of Fred Fisher was later discovered in the same paddock where this ghost had supposedly pointed' Mr Tim Doyle, acting principal of Ray White Macarthur Group said': Ray White Macarthur Group Proprietary Limited, 2014), the centre of a local legend involving murder and intrigue.
Campbelltown farms produced wheat for the colony. This crop was short-lived as the disease "wheat rust" infected the area.
Farley sold the property to John Bray in 1840. Bray owned other properties to the south and used Denfield as a cattle fattening holding farm, closer to the Sydney markets for stock from his other more distant holdings. Bray married three times, each of his first two wives dying at Denfield. The third wife outlived him and was still in residence in the early 1900s. It is thought that for some time the building became an inn.
Following the death of the third Mrs Bray the property was rented over a number of years, substantial parcels of land were hived off and sold and Denfield's homestead fell into disrepair.