Hawkesbury River - Settlement

Reference: Series 1 Vol 1 p 499

Captain Paterson to Right Honourable Henry Dundas on 15 June 1795 reported that the number of settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury, together with their families amounted to upwards of four hundred people whose farms extended nearly thirty miles along both sides of the river.

In his ‘Account of the English colony of New South Wales’ (1798) David Collins stated that in January 1794 another division of settlers were added to those already established at the Hawkesbury. This statement indicates that there were settlers living in the Hawkesbury prior to January 1794.

Reference: Series I Vol II, Grose to Dundas, 29 April 1794, p 210

In January 1794 the first twenty-two settlers were granted land on the banks of the Hawkesbury River between the present town of Windsor and Pitt Town Bottoms.