Scheyville National Park, National park in northwestern Sydney, Australia
Scheyville National Park covers 920 hectares of woodland and wetland habitats northwest of Sydney. The northern section contains Longneck Lagoon, a water body that draws various bird species.
The land belonged to the Dharug people for approximately 30,000 years before European settlers arrived in the 1790s. It was initially converted to Pitt Town Common for grazing livestock.
The name Scheyville honours William Francis Schey, the MP for Redfern and Darlington who turned the farm into a training school for British migrant youths. Under the Dreadnought Scheme, more than half of the boys in the programme were sent here to learn sheep shearing, riding, dairying and butchering. By 1930, 4,500 British youths had trained at Scheyville.
The park lies about 40 km northwest of Sydney's central business district, northeast of Windsor near the Scheyville settlement; Longneck Lagoon sits in the northern section. Access is by road, and the former farm and training-farm buildings stand within the park. The site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 9 April 2010.
The Dreadnought Scheme, which trained British teenagers in farming at Scheyville, was suspended when World War I began. The farm was then briefly used to intern 87 German nationals taken from German ships anchored in Sydney Harbour at the outbreak of the war.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,736 contributors worldwide.
