The first British explorers to visit the area surveyed Emu Plains in August 1790 led by Watkin Tench, and named it Emu Island after emus they sighted on the land and in the mistaken belief that the land was actually on an island in the Nepean River. It was first referred to by its current name by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 15 April 1814, when he toured the island also realising that it was not an island but a plain that occasionally flooded giving the appearance of an island. When William Cox started building his road over the Blue Mountains from there, The Cox's Road started work at Emu plains on 18 July 1814. A government farm with convict labour was established in 1813 with 1326 convicts working on growing local agriculture. It closed down in 1833 and the land was Gazetted and sold to establishment the village of Emu Plains.