For bookings contact Past Times Tours

(02) 9686 6861
pasttimestours@optusnet.com.au  


Past Times Tours presents a Tour Guide service for student groups from Primary School to HSC level, ESL groups, TAFE etc.

Site studies of: The Female Factory, Female Orphan School & Whispering Bones, with a choice of three cemeteries:
St Johns - the oldest remaing cemetery in Australia where many first fleeters, pioneers and colonial officials lie
All Saints - where those on the fringes of society were buried, paupers, orphans and lunatics
St Patricks - the earliest Catholic cemetery in Australia with a very Irish character.

Tours (Walking or Coach): Aboriginal Parramatta , Expansion of the Colony, Geography Excursions (Spacial Inequality) Convicts Galore, Religious studies

We specialise in linking with schools programs conducted by Old Government House, Elizabeth Farm and Hambledon Cottage.  As these houses can take a limited number of students, we can take the extra classes in your coach to view sites in Parramatta which we theme to the house programs.  At lunch time we swap groups and repeat the morning session with the house group in the afternoon.

Lectures available on request to all educational levels.

Guides in Period Costume if required.

School Displays available.  Some schools find the cost of a coach beyond the students' means.  To enhance the curriculum we can bring a display of household equipment to your school and talk about "How we used to live" 

Games available to help understand and reinforce the uses of unusual items.

Students can handle a variety of household gadgets

Whispering Bones -
Site study of St John’s Cemetery

Experience walking with the spirits of Parramatta Pioneers. Visit the graves of murderers and missionaries, convicts and criminals. A story oriented tour, be enthralled with surprising true tales of happenings in colonial Parramatta.

Questions which can be addressed include:

• Cause of Death
• Age at Death
• Reasons for Infant Mortality
• Convict life in the Early Colony
• Bushranger Activity in Parramatta
• Symbolism. What do the carvings mean etc.

Tour can be adapted to suit Primary of High School. HSC religious studies.  The latter tour can include visits to churches and temples.

Join our guides for this two hour site study or experience it as one component of a day exploring colonial history

Aboriginal Parramatta -
Bus or Walking Tour

Our guide/s can join your bus for a day exploring aboriginal Parramatta.

View a kilometre long artwork which demonstrates a sense of belonging to the land.

Explore the painted pathway on the banks of the Parramatta river, which tells of life both before and after settlers arrived, from the aboriginal point of view. Guides give an interpretive talk as we walk.

Visit several graves in St John’s cemetery pertinent to aboriginal life in colonial times. Which missionary started an aboriginal school? Who sewed blankets into cloaks “to clothe their nakedness”?

View the sites of the annual Native feast and the Native School. Visit a high point of Burramattagal land and hear of food sources, land management practices and view marked trees.

Schools can be met from Rivercat, bus or train for a walking tour of sites within a suitable distance from transport.

Full or Half Day

Convicts Galore!

Includes site study of Female Factory (Female Gaol)

View the site of the first and second gaols on Gaol Green. When were they built? Convict punishment methods of gallows, stocks and whipping post were also on this grim site. Hear tales of crimes that ended on the gallows.

Explore the site of the purpose built gaol erected to house women convicts. Walk around the buildings and hear fascinating stories of their lifestyle, why they were gaoled and what happened to their children. Who had their heads shaved and who were eligible for the marriage fairs?

View the earliest surviving convicts cottage and trace his life from smuggler to farmer.

Visit the graves of convicts in St John’s cemetery. Why were they transported and what was their lifestyle here?

Can be adapted to suit Primary Schools or as a High School Site Study

Half or full day

Expansion of the Colony

Explores the reasons for the expansion of the colony – from Sydney to Parramatta and beyond

Why was Parramatta settled within a few months of the First Fleet’s arrival?

Understand the importance of the river to settlers as the preferred mode of transport

Look at a choice of farm sites of vital importance to saving the colony form starvation

• Experiment Farm and the James Ruse story
• The site of the government farm where the first successful wheat crops were grown
• Elizabeth Farm where the wool industry was developed

How did this development displace the Aboriginal population?

Where was the infrastructure located – the first street, church, convict huts, hospital and wharf

For bookings contact Past Times Tours

(02) 9686 6861
pasttimestours@optusnet.com.au