The Arms of Australia Inn Museum: Emu Plains

The Arms of Australia Inn Museum located on the Great Western Highway, Emu Plains, NSW
The Arms of Australia Inn Museum, located on the Great Western Highway, Emu Plains, was built it two sections, the first in 1826.

The inn was once a staging post for travellers from Sydney going over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst and the goldfields.

The original building was part of Governor Macquarie’s Experimental Prison Farm, possibly the tanner's hut. The inn was probably licensed as the Mountaineer Inn in 1837 before being licensed as The Arms of Australia in 1841.

Businesses along the Great Western Road collapsed after a rail line opened to Bathurst in 1869.

The Arms of Australia was a ruin for years until it was saved from demolition and restored and officially opened on 27th March 1976 as a museum of local history.

The Inn is also the Headquarters of the NSW Corps of Marines.
Headquarters of the NSW Corps of Marines.is the Arms of Australia Museum, Emu Plains, Sydney Australia.

Some Interesting Facts

The greater Blue Mountains area has six distinct Aboriginal peoples—Darug, Gundungurra, Wiradjuri, Wanaruah, Darkinjung, and Tharawal.

In 1789, Governor Arthur Phillip was leading a boat expedition when they came upon Aboriignal people on the Branches of the Hawkesbury River northwest of Sydney, whom they called "The Branch" natives. Phillip’s party camped with Aboriignal men, Gomebeere and Yellowmundy, and David Collins recorded some Aboriginal language.

In August 1790, on an expedition led by Watkin Tench, a British Marine officer, the area was named Emu Island after he saw emus and mistakenly believed the land across the Nepean River was an island.

A government farm with convict labour was established at Emu Plains in 1813, with 1326 convicts.

William Cox was tasked by Governor Macquarie on 18 July 1814, to construct a road across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst. It was completed in 1815. (less than 6 months)
Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1850 - 1932), Thursday 24 July 1919,
The renown naturalist, Charles Darwin, stayed at Emu Plains on his visit to Australia in 1836. Darwin stayed at the inn at "Emu Ferry", and the next morning, he crossed Nepean River in a ferry boat and ascended the Blue Mountains.
CHARLES DARWIN IN 1854. Darwin made the most of Jiis opportunity of seeing the country. He hired two horses in Sydney and obtained the services of a man to accompany him on a journey over the Blue Mountains to Bathurst. Leaving Sydney on the morn- ing of January 16, and travelling in a leisurely fashion, with a day’s halt at Wallerawang, they reached the little City of the Plains, then almost seventeen years old, on the evening of the 20th. The first night was passed “at a very comfortable inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from Sydney, and near the ascent of the Blue Mountains.” You may still see the old buildings of the inn, close to the railway line upon the eastern bank of the Nepean. It was a famous hostelry all through the coaching days, and was known as "Squires’,” after the most celebrated of its licensees. Early the next morning they were ferried across the river, and commenced the ascent of the Mountains.The Lone hand. New Series Vol. 1 No. 4 (2 March 1914)
Emu Ferry Inn, NSW, The two-storey convict built Inn was one of the earliest and best known in the district. It had a carved staircase, made by convict labour. There were wide over-hanging eaves and the many windows had small panes of glass. There were sixteen rooms in the building. A huge pepper tree grew out the front with a camping ground nearby for the teamsters who made up a large proportion of the travellers in the early days.It began life in 1827 as the Emu Ferry Inn or Wilson’s Hotel. The reason being that Wilson ran the inn and the ferry at that spot. He was the step-son of Josephson who built the inn. There was no bridge across the river. It was quite profitable for Wilson to run the ferry across the river as well as run an inn because he could decide if the river was too high, low or muddy to run the ferry and in consequence he probably did a good trade.
Until the 1850s, the Nepean River was crossed at Emu Ford, often using the punt service.

Emu Ferry Post Office opened on 1 April 1863.

The Victoria Bridge was designed by Engineer in Chief of Railways John Whitton from 1862-7 as part of the Penrith to Weatherboard (Wentworth Falls) railway line.

First passenger train crosses Victoria Bridge in 1867.

By 1867, there were seven hotels at Emu Plains, according to the government gazette of that year.

The Emu Plains Railway Station opened on 18 August 1868.

The township of Emu was renamed Emu Plains in 1882.
View of Emu Plains from Lapstone deviation, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 27 October 1926

Also in Emu Plains

Also located on Great Western Hwy, near The Arms of Australia Museum, is Mortimer's House, built in 1830. The house, was first owned by Joseph Barrow Montefiore, (after whom Montefiore's village, Wellington, is named) from 1830-1833. However, the building is named after its most famous resident, John Mortimer, who was the innkeeper of the nearby Arms of Australia Inn.

"Emu Hall", Emu Plains, was built in 1852 for race horse owner and MP James Ryan. The building was renovated in 2018, and is now a restaurant.
"Emu Hall", Emu Plains, NSW,was built in 1852 for race horse owner and MP, James Ryan. The building was renovated in 2018, and is now a restaurant
St Paul's Anglican Church was built in 1848.

O'Donaghue's Irish House was originally built by William George Clark in 1886 and called the Emu Inn (known as “The Emu”). In 1937, it reopened as the Orient Hotel. In 1937, the Orient became the Nepean. In 1998, it became an Irish pub.

Artists Gerald Lewers (1905–1962) and Margo Lewers (1908–1978) donated their house (c1900) to the local community, and it is now Penrith Regional Art Gallery.

Around Emu Plains 


On the corner of Russell Street and Great Western HWY, Emu Plains, NSW. The original Emu Plains Post Office
Arms of Australia Inn Museum: Corner of Great Western Highway and Gardenia Avenue, Emu Plains,  NSW
Plaque commemorating the Bicentenary of The Crossing of the Blue Mountains, by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth in May 1813
The original, Emu Plains Public School was officially opened by Sir Henry Parkes, Premier of New South Wales, in August 1877. Emu Plains, NSW
The pedestrian and cyclist bridge spanning the Nepean River between Penrith and Emu Plains, NSW
St Paul's Anglican Church was built in 1848, Emu Plains, NSW
Historic cemetery, Emu Plains, NSW

Places To Go

Arms of Australia Inn Museum: Corner of Great Western Highway and Gardenia Avenue, Emu Plains, 2750. Ph: (02) 4735 4394. Open Sundays 1pm-5pm.

Penrith Regional Gallery and The Lewers Bequest, 86 River Road Emu Plains. (02) 4735 1100

Emu Plains Anglican Church, 26 Short St, Emu Plains

Emu Hall, 2-26 Great Western Hwy, Emu Plains NSW

O'donoghues Irish Pub, 99 Great Western Highway Emu Plains NSW