Rouse Hill

Rouse Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Rouse Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rouse Hill is located in the Hills District, 43 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and 19 kilometres north-west of the Parramatta central business district. It is in the local government areas of The Hills Shire and City of Blacktown. Rouse Hill Town Centre is at the heart of the suburb, which contains a busy Town Square.

Rouse Hill encompasses what was originally known as the Village of Aberdour along with the area that became known as 'Vinegar Hill' following the convict rebellion of 1804.

Rouse Hill is noteworthy in Australian history as the site of the main battle during an Irish convict rebellion, known as the Castle Hill rebellion or the 'Second Battle of Vinegar Hill'. On 4 March 1804, Irish convicts including political prisoners transported for participating in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, broke out of the Government Farm at Castle Hill, aiming to seize control of the area and to capture Parramatta. The uprising was crushed by the military authorities at Rouse Hill the following day with at least fifteen rebels killed during the battle. Nine of the rebel leaders were executed and hundreds were punished. The exact site of the Battle is uncertain but a monument with a plaque commemorating the event can be seen within Castlebrook Lawn Cemetery on Windsor Road in Kellyville Ridge.The name Rouse Hill perpetuates the name of Richard Rouse (1774-1852), a public servant and free settler, who received a grant of land in the area.Rouse arrived in the colony in 1801. In October 1816 he was granted 450 acres at Vinegar Hill (named after the 1804 convict insurrection).Rouse had taken possession of the land at an earlier date because he began building his family home there in 1813. There were ongoing official efforts to dispense with the name Vinegar Hill, due to the association with the 1804 uprising.Governor Macquarie changed the name of the locality to Rouse Hill, but the alternate name Vinegar Hill persisted until at least the 1860s.The first daily mail coach between Windsor and Sydney commenced in 1831. A change of horses was made at the Rouse Hill Hotel, at that time kept by the publican John Booth (known as 'Crockery Bill').Vinegar Hill Post Office opened on 1 October 1857 and was renamed Rouse Hill on 13 April 1858.The Rouse Hill Hotel closed in 1891.