Walkway at the Camden Town Farm
I was recently walking across the Nepean River floodplain past meadows of swaying waist-high grass on a local walkway that brought to mind Governor King’s 1805 description of the Cowpastures. Atkinson writes
The first Europeans looked about with pleasure at the luxuriant grass that covered both the flats and the low hills. The flats seemed best for cattle…the trees were sparse.
Atkinson, Alan 1988, Camden, Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York
The trees were indeed sparse on my walk, yet the cattle in the adjacent paddock proved the fulfilment of the observations of the early Europeans.
The cattle I saw were polled hornless black cattle markedly different from the horned-South African cattle, which made the Nepean River floodplain their home in 1788 after they escaped from Bennelong Point in Sydney Town. They became the wild cattle of the Cowpastures.
The beauty of the landscape hints at the management skills of the area’s original inhabitants -the Dharawal – who understood this country well.
This landscape characterises the recently opened Miss Lewella Davies Memorial Walkway, which weaves its way across the Nepean River flats on the western side of Camden’s township historic town centre.
Layers of meaning within the landscape
Walking the ground is an essential way for a historian to empathise with the subtleties of the landscape and the layers of meaning that are buried within it.
The walkway is located in the original Cowpastures named Governor Hunter in 1796, which Governor King declared a government reserve in 1803. Just like an English lord, Governor King banned any unauthorised entry south of the Nepean River to stop the poaching of wild cattle. Just like the ‘keep out’ signs in the cattle paddocks today.
According to Peter Mylrea, the area of the town farm was purchased by colonial pioneer John Macarthur after the government Cowpasture Reserve was closed and sold off in 1825. It is easy to see why John Macarthur wanted this part of the country for his farming outpost of Camden Park, centred at Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta.
Although this does not excuse European invaders from displacing and dispossessing the Indigenous Dharawal people from their country. Englishman and colonial identity John Oxley and John Macarthur were part of the colonial settler society which, according to LeFevre, sought to replace the original population of the colonized territory with a new society of settlers.
Today all of this country is part of the Camden Town Farm, which includes the walkway.
Llewella Davies – a colourful local character
Llewella Davies was a larger-than-life colourful Camden character and a genuinely unique Camden identity. On her death in 2000, her estate bequeathed 55 acres of her family’s dairy farm fronting Exeter Street to the Camden Council. Llewella wanted the site to be used as a functional model farm for educational or passive recreational use.
The Davies dairy farm
The Davies family purchased a farm of 130 acres in 1908. They appeared not to have farmed the land and leased 20 acres on the corner of Exeter and Macquarie Grove Road to Camden Chinese market gardener Tong Hing and others for dairying.
Llewella was the youngest of two children to Evan and Mary Davies. She lived all her life in the family house called Nant Gwylan on Exeter Street, opposite the farm. Her father died in 1945, and Llewella inherited the house and farm on her mother’s death in 1960.
The house Nant Gwylan was surrounded by Camden High School, established in 1956 on a sporting reserve. Despite being approached on several occasions, Llewella refused to sell out to the Department of Education for an extension to the high school.
Llewella, who never married, was born in 1901 and educated at Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (SCEGGS) in Darlinghurst. The school educated young women in a progressive liberal curriculum that included the classics, scientific subjects, and female accomplishments.
Llewella undertook paid work at the Camden News office for many years and volunteered for numerous community organisations, including the Red Cross and the Camden Historical Society. In 1981 she was awarded the Order of Australia medal (OAM) for community service.
The Camden Town Farm
In 2007 Camden Council appointed a Community Management Committee to examine the options for the farm site that Llewella Davies had gifted to the Camden community. The 2007 Camden Town Farm Masterplan outlined the vision for the farm:
The farm will be developed and maintained primarily for agricultural, tourism and educational purposes. It was to be operated and managed in a sustainable manner that retains its unique character and encourages and facilitates community access, participation and visitation.
2007 Camden Town Farm Masterplan
The master plan stated the farm was ‘ideally place to integrate itself with the broader township’ and the existing Camden RSL Community Memorial Walkway established in 2006.
Against this background, the Camden Town Farm management committee moved forward with the development of a walkway in 2016.
The Miss Llewella Davies Pioneers Walkway
The walkway was constructed jointly by Camden Council and the Town Farm Management Committee through the New South Wales Government’s Metropolitan Greenspace Program. The program is administered by the Office of Strategic Lands, with funding for the program coming from the Sydney Region Development Fund. It aims to improve the regional open space in Sydney and the Central Coast. It has been running since 1990.
Camden Mayor Theresa Fedeli opened the walkway on 17th August 2019 to an enthusiastic crowd of locals. The walkway is approximately 2.4 kilometres, and it has been estimated that by January 2020, around 1000 people per week will be using it.
The walkway is part of Camden’s Living History, where visitors and locals can see, experience and understand what a farm looks like, smells like and its size and extent. Located on Sydney’s urban fringe, it is a constant reminder of the Indigenous Dharawal people and the area’s farming heritage of grazing, cropping, and dairying.
If the walker is patient and perceptive, the path reveals the layers of the past, some of which have been silenced for many years.
Miss Llewella Davies Pioneers Walkway Highlights (on map)
- Chinese wishing wells
- Seismic monitoring station
- Views of Nepean River
- Views to Macquarie House
- Shoesmith livestock yard.
- Heritage precinct
Additional highlights
- Nepean River floodplain
- Dam
- Camden Community Garden
- Camden Fresh Produce Markets
- Worker’s cottage
- Onslow Park and Camden Showground
- Bicentennial Equestrian Park
- Camden Town Centre Heritage Conservation Area
- Camden RSL Community Memorial Walkway
The value of the walkway
- Tourism
- Education
- Memorial
- Commemoration
- Fitness and wellbeing
- Ecological
- Sustainability
- Working farm
- Living history
- Community events and functions
- Commercial business – farmers markets
- Aesthetics and moral imperative
- Storytelling
- Community wellness
- Food security
Australian Historic Themes
The Miss Llewella Davies Pioneers Walkway fits the Australian Historic Themes on several levels, and the themes are:
- Tracing the natural evolution of Australia,
- Peopling Australia
- Developing local, regional and national economies
- Building settlements, towns, and cities
- Working
- Educating
- Governing
- Developing Australia’s cultural life
- Marking the phases of life
Updated on 14 June 2023; Originally posted on 14 April 2020 as ‘A walk in the meadows of the past’
Camden History Notes 
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