Australian Arms Inn legacy found in Emu Plains schoolyard

It’s a building most Emu Plains residents see every day, but you won’t believe the 170 years of history behind it.

If your morning commute takes you down the Great Western Highway in Emu Plains, or you spend any of your time at O’Donoghues, you’d know the fenced off abandoned building near the corner of Old Bathurst Rd.

What you may not know is why it’s there, or what functions it had in the past, so we decided to have a look into the history of the building.

According to research done by Penrith Library, the site was a farm from 1813 to 1833 before it was purchased by Charles Smith, who sold it to John Grant in 1834.

Researcher Adrienne Brown said the first building was erected on the site between 1834 and 1844.

The Old Emu Plains Post Office as it stands today.

“It was first known as the Travellers Inn,” she said. “It was leased from Grant by a publican called John Mortimer. From 1850, John Grant’s family were not living in the Inn, and it was then known as the Australian Arms Inn.”

Ms Brown said the inn was run from 1850 to 1869 by a licensee named Robert Beaton, whose family lived on site.

“As Emu Plains developed the road traffic decreased, business at the Inn became slow, and Mr Beaton stopped trading in 1869,” she said.

“He died a year later in 1870, however it continued to be used as a residence for his family.”

The building remained under the ownership of John Grant’s family, but was used as a private residence until 1914 when Minnie McKellar obtained a lease to run the Emu Plains Post Office out of the building.

The Emu Plains Post Office as it stood in 1950.

“She organised the family living quarters at the back and upstairs, and the public postal service at the front of the inn,” Ms Brown said.

“In 1937, she was able to purchase the property.

“When she died in 1948, her daughter Carol took over the postal role until she retired due to ill health in 1967.”

The Department of Education purchased a parcel of land from the McKellar family in 1963 for the new Nepean High School, but Carol McKellar remained in the building until 1980 when she tragically died in a house fire.

A top down view of the Old Emu Plains Post Office (white building on centre left of screen). Picture: Six Maps

“In 1981 there was a transfer of deeds of the Old Emu Plains Post Office from Coral McKellar to Penrith City Council who restored it due to vandalism over the years, and then leased out the building,” Ms Brown said.

The building sits empty today, but serves as a good insight into the history of Emu Plains and the Nepean Valley.