The railway was built in the 1850s for freight and livestock. It was mainly agricultural until the mid-20th century when a migrant hostel meant many post WWII European immigrants passed through and settled in the surrounding areas in the 50s and 60s.  A second wave of south-eastern Asian immigrants arrived in the 1980s as a result of the Vietnam war. 

In the 80s Cabramatta and surrounding areas were characterised by a diversity of Australian born children with migrant parents.  Cabramatta was transformed into a thriving Asian community with a strong food culture. According to the 2016 census, Vietnamese is still the predominant ethic group, (33%), followed by Chinese (24%) Cambodians (8%) and 40 other ethnic groups.

Drug activities were prominent from the early to late 1990s, including the murder of a NSW politician, John Newman in 1994. The creation of drug treatment and intervention programs and more police to tackle drug crimes from 2002 resulted in the area having comparable levels of crime to many other parts of Sydney. 

Taste Cultural Tour of Cabramatta

Taste Cultural Tours is a charity and social enterprise, started by the Benevolent Society in 2010 (now independent), who train local-to-the-area people to promote cross cultural understanding, restaurants and other small businesses and food.

We meet our Taste food tour guide, Taekyoung Kim outside Vinata’s Hot Bread Shop, and, after greetings all around, our first taste experience is a Banh Mi from the bread shop.  The crusty bread roll, smeared with Tien, the owner’s secret pate, mayonnaise, pork, ham, pickled carrot, cucumber, shallots, coriander and that magic Maggi seasoning is delicious and sooo fresh.