Every day life about town, across the suburbs of Western Sydney, captured by ABC TV during the 1970s. Video produced by ESEM Projects with support from the ABC's Content Ideas Lab for Storybox Parramatta.

This video is featured as part of our content partnership with the ABC Content Ideas Lab. Notes: Parramatta was an established and bustling city centre long before it was declared “Sydney’s second CBD”. It was founded in 1788, the same year as Sydney, and is rich in historical landmarks including St John’s Cathedral, the Centennial Memorial Clock, Town Hall and Lancer Barracks. Take a little journey back in time and encounter some Paramatta’s many heritage sites that still stand today.

Many Italian migrants came to Australia from rural areas of their homeland and settled in parts of their new country that allowed them to make a living from working the land. Hundreds of them, including Onsonato Galluzzo, settled in semi-rural areas around Sydney. This ABC report from 1958, tells the story of how Galluzzo arrived in Australia in 1939 and acquired land in Epping, just north of Parramatta, after the war. When more of his family joined him in Australia in 1949, they tilled the three-and-a-half acre property together and turned it into a thriving farm to support the family for generations to come.

This video is featured as part of our content partnership with the ABC Content Ideas Lab. Notes: The video features a glamourous fashion parade, unexpectedly steeped in colonial and agricultural history. The property you see, Elizabeth Farm, was built by the pioneer of Australia’s wool industry, John MacArthur, in 1793. And the models parading around the property are wearing the winning entries in the 1959 Wool Garment Competition, a nod to the site’s roots. MacArthur was a British army officer and was granted a piece of land in Parramatta where he built the farmhouse. He named it after his wife and began to experiment with wool. MacArthur gradually acquired more land and expanded his farm and home to become the wealthiest men in the colony. Elizabeth Farm is now one of Australia’s oldest surviving homes and an important piece of colonial and Parramatta history.

This video is featured as part of our content partnership with the ABC Content Ideas Lab. Notes: Parramatta is a significant centre of Lebanese settlement in Australia. People from the village of Kfarsghab began to migrate to the area in the 1890s and established the roots for Parramatta’s Lebanese community. The easing of immigration restrictions after World War II saw a wave of migration from Europe and by 1963 the Lebanese community in Parramatta was well established and quickly expanding. Here you see members of the community socialising and performing the Dabke, a traditional dance, at Cedars of Lebanon Hall in Parramatta.

This video is featured as part of our content partnership with the ABC Content Ideas Lab. Parramatta was an established and bustling city centre long before it was declared “Sydney’s second CBD”. It was founded in 1788, the same year as Sydney, and is rich in historical landmarks including St John’s Cathedral, the Centennial Memorial Clock, Town Hall and Lancer Barracks. Take a little journey back in time and encounter some Paramatta’s many heritage sites that still stand today.

Storybox is surfacing unique insights into urban life in Australia in partnership with the ABC's Content Ideas Lab. As part of the partnership we are reinterpreting archival recordings of city scenes, to create intimate moments of encounter with the past lives of diverse Australians. Notes: The ABC has been documenting the social lives of places for over 80 years. This video edit features scenes of recently arrived migrants in Villawood in the 1950s. We can't help but wonder what the boy in the background was thinking?