Every Australia city worth its name has its China Town, but Cabramatta adds a new dimension to Sydney's cosmopolitan image as an Asian Town.
Set on the border between Fairfield and Liverpool municipalities, modern Cabramatta captures the colour and character of The East with ranks of different Asian restaurants, food and speciality shops.
But while Cabramatta and surrounding suburbs in the south-western sector of Sydney have had a long association with migrants, Asians haven't always played the dominant role.
When the post-World War II migration program was in full swing, it was the new German, Italian and Yugoslav settlers who made major contributions to the establishment and development of this individual and energetic neighbourhood.
The local link with horse racing, the sport of kings, goes back even further. James Badgery, first owner of the land earmarked for Sydney’s second airport, was an enthusiast, and the family still retains a cup he won on the original Hyde Park course with Rob Roy.
Several racecourses have operated in the district in the past 200 years, but it was left to William Alexander Long, son of a wealthy ex-convict wine merchant, to sow the seeds of today’s Warwick Farm track.
Long, owner of the 1880 Melbourne Cup winner, Grand Flanneur, eventually sold his Chipping Norton racing establishment to leading owner-trainer William Forrester, founder of the Warwick Farm Racing Club.
