ATTRACTIONS SCHEYVILLE NSW

1km (return) - 1.5 hour (each way) Step out of your car and into the past. This short walk, perfect for walking with children and for visitors with ties to the local area, pulls you back through the fascinating history of Scheyville. Whether you make it a stop on your larger car tour, or come here specifically, there's much to hold your interest in Scheyville Camp ... Visit website for more info

Some national parks are about more than just the natural environment: they're about us. Scheyville is one of those parks. This gem of a park also has a rich and surprising cultural history that touches more than a quarter of a million Australians. Within its current boundaries, a visitor will find the remnants of everything from a cooperative farm ... Visit website for more info

Scheyville National Park unites the best of the outdoors – birdwatching, easy walks, cycling and horse riding – with a diverse cultural setting. Some national parks are about more than just the natural environment: they’re about us. Scheyville is one of those parks. This gem of a park also has a rich and surprising cultural history that touches more than a quarter of a million Australians. Within its current boundaries, a visitor will find the remnants of everything from a cooperative farm to a famous migrant camp - for many, this was the first stop on their journey to becoming an Australian. You might be a descendant of a Dreadnought Boy or of somebody who trained here to fight in the Vietnam War. Indeed, the cultural significance of the park is so wide-reaching that it has been placed on the NSW State Heritage Register. Spend a morning birdwatching or wandering the grasslands on a horse, then explore the ruined and restored buildings clustered in the southern precinct of the park. Visiting Scheyville is a varied experience, uniting the best of the natural world with the history of our social world....

Step out of your car and into the past. This short walk, perfect for walking with children and for visitors with ties to the local area, pulls you back through the fascinating history of Scheyville. Whether you make it a stop on your larger car tour, or come here specifically, there’s much to hold your interest in Scheyville Camp Precinct. Scheyville has a rich heritage of migrant settlement: between 1949 and 1964, up to 1500 people a year, from more than 22 countries, passed through the camp. Scheyville was their first glimpse of a new life in Australia, and visitors can see what they saw in structures like the Dreadnought dining hall and dormitory buildings, now under restoration. Other buildings on Migrant Heritage walk are waiting for repairs or reduced to outlines, but 12 interpretive panels, with text and photographs, help bring the site back to life. Visitors with a direct connection to the site can also register on the Scheyville database to be kept up-to-date on activities around the park. Try the Longneck Lagoon walking track to engage with the areas wildlife....

Throughout the 20th century, the buildings and public spaces of Scheyville played host to many different people, groups and projects: a socialist labour settlement; the Dreadnought Trust’s training scheme for young British men; and farm training for Australian city boys. Scheyville even functioned for a time as a military camp. Later, it was the largest immigration hostel in Australia - this history is detailed in the Migrant Heritage walk. Scheyville may be a national park now, but the site’s heritage is clear in Scheyville Camp precinct. Visitors can wander around old buildings and learn about the past way of life here. This is a particularly good stop for history buffs, school students, or people just looking to bookend a picnic with some light learning. Expect to find several easy walks around restored buildings from the 1920s or 50s, buildings in current restoration, or remnants of structures long since fallen. Scheyville Camp precinct has a strong historical value, but also a strong emotional one. Residents came to the site during times of great change in their lives, as Dreadnought boys, post-World War Two migrants, or National Service Officers during the Vietnam War. The site is a legacy to these people. ...