Minchinbury, New South Wales

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Minchinbury is a suburb in the City of Blacktown, in Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

This suburb is part of the property once known as Minchinbury, so named by Capt. William Minchin who was granted 1000 acres (4 km²) here in 1819. It is predominantly a residential area with a small local commercial/retail mall in its center and has zoned industrial/commercial areas located in the western most part.

William Minchin was the Principal Superintendent of Police and Treasurer of the Police Fund in the colony. He was granted 1,000 acres of land in the area named after him and now known as Minchinbury. After the death of William in 1821, the property passed to his only daughter Maria Matilda. In 1838, Maria Matilda and her family were lost at sea, leaving no descendants of William Minchin alive.

Dr. Charles McKay purchased the property in 1859 and developed it into vineyards and cellars. Over the next 2 decades, Dr. McKay bought many neighbouring properties and in 1881, he put all of his land up for auction. At this time, the land did not sell and it wasn't until 1895 that James Angus bought all of McKay's properties.

Penfolds Pty. Ltd. purchased the winery and vineyards in 1912. Most of the existing buildings at the winery were probably added while under the ownership of Penfolds. In 1898, during Angus' winemaking years, the vineyards suffered a viral disease that destroyed the vines. New vines were planted and grew until 1962 when soil erosion made them useless. New vineyards were established on other properties around the area to supply the fruit for the winery.

Minchinbury Winery became famous for its champagne. Penfolds stopped operations at the winery in 1978.

The Jet at Minchinbury

1 Landmarks
2 References
3 Sporting Clubs
4 External links

[edit] Landmarks

Along the Great Western Highway there are two notable landmarks:

The previous entrance to Penfolds Winery remains in the form of the masonry work on either side of the gate, at the top of the hill between Willis Street and Beaconsfield Road
There is a training jet aircraft mounted about 10m off the ground, in a nearly vertical manner, at the intersection of the Great Western Highway and Minchin Drive (adjacent to Minchinbury Reserve).

These landmarks are on the southern side of the Great Western Highway