Emu Plains, New South Wales

Emu Plains Sydney, New South Wales
Emu Plains Railway Station
Population	8,097 (2011 census)
• Density	1,022.3/km2 (2,647.9/sq mi)
Established	circa 1814
Postcode(s)	2750
Area	7.92 km2 (3.1 sq mi)
Location	58 km (36 mi) west of Sydney CBD
LGA(s)	City of Penrith
State electorate(s)	Penrith
Federal Division(s)	Lindsay
Suburbs around Emu Plains: Emu Heights Castlereagh Penrith Glenbrook Emu Plains Jamisontown Glenbrook Leonay Regentville

Emu Plains is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 58 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Penrith and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region.

Emu Plains is on the western side of the Nepean River, located at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Prior to European settlement, what is now Emu Plains was on the border of the Western Sydney-based Darug people and the Southern Highlands-based Gandangara people, whose land extended into the Blue Mountains. The local Darug people were known as the Mulgoa who lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle governed by traditional laws, which had their origins in the Dreamtime. They lived in huts made of bark called 'gunyahs', hunted kangaroos and emus for meat, and gathered yams, berries and other native plants.

The first British explorers to visit the area surveyed Emu Plains in 1790 and named it Emu Island after emus they sighted on the land and in the mistaken belief that the land was actually on an island in the Nepean River. It was first referred to by its current name by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1814 when William Cox started building his road over the Blue Mountains from there. A government farm with convict labour was established in 1813 with 1326 convicts working on growing local agriculture. It closed down in 1833 and the land was Gazetted and sold to establishment the village of Emu Plains.

Emu Ferry Post Office opened on 1 April 1863 and was renamed Emu Plains in 1882.