European settlement, 1780s–1810s Prior to European settlement,
Aboriginal people from the Cabrogal-
Gandangara tribe have lived in the Fairfield area for more than 30,000 years. The earliest recorded
white settlement in the Fairfield district is described in
William Bradley's Journal where he noted an expedition from
Rose Hill to
Prospect Creek to determine whether Prospect Creek led to
Botany Bay. Bradley described a place on the Creek where the water changed from fresh to salt with a drop of . The presence of
salt water confirmed Prospect Creek's connection to the sea. Gabriel Louis Marie Huon de Kerrileau, a
Breton soldier in the
NSW Corps arrived in the colony in 1794, having fled
France during the
French Revolution. In 1807 he received a grant of in the centre of Fairfield, which he named
Castel Paul. This was an Englished form of the town in which he was born in Brittany, Kastell-Paol, Saint-Pol-de-Léon in French. By 1814
Castel Paul had been combined, by subsequent owners, with several similarly sized grants to form a largely uncleared estate.
Early development, 1820s–1920s The free settler John Horsley purchased the estate in that year and named it
Mark Lodge, after family properties in
Essex,
England. Horsley, a Magistrate and Coroner at Liverpool (1825-1834), and his large family were among the pioneers of
white settlement in the Fairfield District. Later, a Colonial
Treasurer, Thomas Ware Smart (1810–1881) bought the estate and in the 1860s built the mansion, 'Fairfield House'.
Fairfield railway station was opened in 1856 and has the oldest surviving railway building in New South Wales. Development began in the mid 19th century supported by
railway construction in 1856. The railway aided with the enlargement of local industries including timber, fruit development and agricultural produce. Around the start of the 20th century the area had a population of 2,500 people and with fertile soils, produced
crops for distribution in Sydney. Electricity was connected in 1921. John James Woods, born in 1876 in County Tyrone, Ireland, arrived in Fairfield in 1895 and went on to establish JJ Woods and Sons Carriers Pty Ltd in the early 20th century. Starting with horse-drawn carts, the business grew into a major transport company. By the time of Woods’s death, it operated around 40 trucks and played a key role in Fairfield’s transformation from a rural town into a thriving urban centre.
Post-war period, 1940s–1980s Rapid population increase after
World War II saw the settlement of many ex-service men and European migrants, with Ware Street becoming the new main street, which featured the city's only escalator. The street at that time featured prominent
hardware,
furniture,
menswear and
homeware stores, including a
Bing Lee. Large scale
Housing Commission development in the 1950s swelled the population to 38,000. The Civic Centre was established in the 1960s in Spencer Street and featured many businesses, including the nearby Civic Hotel.
Fairfield Hospital was opened in September 1956 on
The Horsley Drive in
Carramar, but was relocated to
Prairiewood in 1988 with the old site converted into a
Karitane infant,
Early childhood family education and perinatal mental health centre. By 1979, the population had reached 120,000 and the city was becoming one of the larger
Local Government Areas in New South Wales. In the early 1980s, Fairfield Forum was opened and Ware Street was shut for traffic, with a
pedestrian zone established in its stead with a
water fountain imported from Italy being the ornament of the civic area. However, the pedestrian
plaza was deemed unsuccessful, despite the annual street
parades occurring there, and thus Ware Street once again was open to traffic.
Rapid growth, 1980s–present During the mid to late 1980s
Iran–Iraq War, large number of Assyrians fled
Iraq and settled in Fairfield, making it the most popular settlement for
Assyrians. In 1990, Neeta City was opened due to the rapid growth of Fairfield's commercial centre. An
amphitheatre situated in Spencer Street with
chess board was closed in the early 2000s with the street reopening to traffic. In the mid-2000s, Fairfield's first high rise apartment building (around 9 to 11 storeys) was constructed, with a number of other high rise buildings which were built consequentially throughout the city centre. In 2015, the
Abbott government granted 12,000 extra humanitarian visas to
persecuted groups in the war-torn Middle Eastern countries,
namely Syria. The Department of Social Services confirmed that 11,400 Iraqi and Syrian refugees (many of whom being Assyrian) were admitted to Australia as part of its one-off humanitarian intake, with half of them primarily settling in Fairfield and also Liverpool. Fairfield City accommodated 3,000 humanitarian arrivals in 2016, taking in 75% of all western Sydney's refugee intake, with
Liverpool City Council second at 14%. Fairfield City Centre today features a concoction of retail, commercial and residential developments, including medium density edifices and medium to high-rise shop-top housing developments. In July 2021, Fairfield was one of the "suburbs of concern" and became a hotspot due to rising
COVID-19 cases in the region that resulted in a strict
lockdown in the area, transforming the CBD into a
ghost town, with heavy
police patrol compliance checks.
Fines were issued for those who did not comply with the state public health order. Workers from Fairfield were ordered to
stay at home by NSW premier
Gladys Berejiklian unless they had leave the house for emergency reasons or that they had produced a negative
COVID-19 test. ==Commercial area==