| Historical notes: | INDIGENOUS OCCUPATION
The lower Hawkesbury was home to the Dharug people. The proximity to the Nepean River and South Creek qualifies it as a key area for food resources for indigenous groups (Proudfoot, 1987).
The Dharug and Darkinjung people called the river Deerubbin and it was a vital source of food and transport (Nichols, 2010).
NON-INDIGENOUS OCCUPATION
Governor Arthur Phillip explored the local area in search of suitable agricultural land in 1789 and discovered and named the Hawkesbury River after Baron Hawkesbury. This region played a significant role in the early development of the colony with European settlers established here by 1794. Situated on fertile floodplains and well known for its abundant agriculture, Green Hills (as it was originally called) supported the colony through desperate times. However, frequent flooding meant that the farmers along the riverbanks were often ruined.
1794: The study area covering allotments at 23 through to 39 North Street, Windsor, is located on land first alienated for European purposes in a grant made by Francis Grose of thirty acres to Samuel Wilcox, who named it Wilcox Farm. It is likely that land clearance and agricultural activities as well as some building works took place during this period and during the subsequent of occupation;
early 19th century: Former Wilcox Farm was incorporated into a larger holding of 1500 acres known as Peninsula Farm.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie replaced Governor Bligh, taking up duty on 1/1/1810. Under his influence the colony propsered. His vision was for a free community, working in conjunction with the penal colony. He implemented an unrivalled public works program, completing 265 public buildings, establishing new public amenities and improving existing services such as roads. Under his leadership Hawkesbury district thrived. He visited the district on his first tour and recorded in his journal on 6/12/1810: 'After dinner I chrestened the new townships...I gave the name of Windsor to the town intended to be erected in the district of the Green Hills...the township in the Richmond district I have named Richmond...' the district reminded Macquarie of those towns in England, whilst Castlereagh, Pitt Town and Wilberforce were named after English statesmen. These are often referred to as Macquarie's Five Towns. Their localities, chiefly Windsor and Richmond, became more permanent with streets, town square and public buildings.
Macquarie also appointed local men in positions of authority. In 1810 a group of settlers sent a letter to him congratulating him on his leadership and improvements. It was published in the Sydney Gazette with his reply. He was 'much pleased with the sentiments' of the letter and assured them that the Haweksbury would 'always be an object of the greatest interest' to him (Nichols, 2010).
In marking out the towns of Windsor and Richmond in 1810, Governor Macquarie was acting on instructions from London. All of the Governors who held office between 1789 and 1822, from Phillip to Brisbane, recieved the same Letter of Instruction regarding the disposal of the 'waste lands of the Crown' that Britain claimed as her own. This included directives for the formation of towns and thus the extension of British civilisation to its Antipodean outpost (Proudfoot 1987, 7-9).
35 North Street:
1794: The study area covering allotments at 23 through to 39 North Street, Windsor, is located on land first alienated for European purposes in a grant made by Francis Grose of thirty acres to Samuel Wilcox, who named it Wilcox Farm. It is likely that land clearance and agricultural activities as well as some building works took place during this period and during the subsequent of occupation;
early 19th century: Former Wilcox Farm was incorporated into a larger holding of 1500 acres known as Peninsula Farm;
Windsor, first of the 'Macquarie Towns' of the Hawkesbury, was officially founded on 6 December 1810 by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. He was impressed by the Hawkesbury itself, especially the advantages of having a settlement on the banks of the river.
A small settlement began to form around the Windsor site called 'Green Hills'. Settlers took advantage of higher ground bordering the river, where they were free from the floods that periodically swept through the valley. Some official recognition of the settlement was given in the building of a Government cottage, the establishment of a Government garden and the marking out of a public common. Macquarie found it a 'sweet delightful spot' when he arrived in 1810 to formalise the already existing small settlement and to mark out an extension of the town.
In his diary, Macquarie wrote that, with his surveying party he 'walked out to survey the grounds belonging to the Crown in and near the present village on the Green Hills and also the adjoining Public Common marked out ... in the time of Governor King; a convenient part of which it is now my intention to appropriate for a large town and township for the accommodation of the settlers inhabiting the south side of the River Hawkesbury, whose farms are liable to be flooded in any inundation of the river, and to connect the present village of the Green Hills with the intended new town and township.'
The site and situation of the town were decided upon, the church site chosen and plans made for a 'great square' opposite it.
In marking out the towns of Windsor and Richmond, Macquarie was acting on instructions from London. All of the Governors who held office between 1789 and 1822, from Phillip to Brisbane, recieved the same Letter of Instruction regarding the disposal of the 'waste lands of the Crown' that Britain claimed as her own. This included directives for the formation of towns and thus the extension of British civilisation to its Antipodean outpost.
A little over a week after the Windsor founding ceremony, Macquarie issued a Government and General order attempting to impose a measure of conformity on building standards for this new town on the Hawkesbury. It included instructions that dwelling houses were to be made of brick or weatherboard, to have brick chimneys, shingled roofs and no dwelling house was to be less than nine feet (three metres) high. A plan of the dwelling house was to be left with each District Constable. On 11 May 1811 further regulations were issued stating that no person was to build a house without submitting a plan to the resident magistrate, nor were town leases to be given without such a plan.
The magistrate held a key position in the colonial towns. At Windsor, Andrew Thompson, an emancipist entrepreneur, had been appointed Chief Constable and then a Magistrate by Macquarie, who was impressed by his enterprise and zeal. Thompson was the richest man on the Hawkesbury, owning a large granary, a brewery and a salt-works. He was a builder of bridges and ships and a trader who had established links with the Pacific Islands. He died in 1810, and Macquarie named Thomspon Square at Windsor, where the town wharf was located in his memory (Proudfoot 1987:7-9)
Under Governor Macquarie's administration, Windsor acquired more than fourteen public buildings of various kinds.
1840s: Peninsula Farm was subdivided, with lots along North Street, Windsor, being developed throughout the nineteenth century (North Street named for Lieutenant Samuel North). It is likely this development was primarily residential in nature;
until 1863: the land adjoining the former Court House Inn was part of that property (37-39 North Street) owned by Shearing, then Moses and then by the Shearing family again.
1860s: tiny cottage was constructed probably by Richard Seymour who purchased the land from the Shearing family (although it is possible the cottage pre-dates the 1860s)
1870: Site sold to John Dunstan, a farmer in Wilberforce. Dunstan also purchased the adjoining property at 31-33 North Street at this time. 35 North Street remained in the Dunstan extended family until 1952, continuously being used as a residential property.
C1930s: Survey plan shows no out-buildings on the property, at that time.
1976: Site sold to the National Trust of Australia (NSW)
C1977: Survey plan shows some galvanised iron and wooden sheds behind the buildings including a garage added to the eastern boundary of the property.
After 1978: an old timber building was relocated and rebuilt in the yard of this property on its eastern boundary.
Present: 35 North Street is in private ownership, after the National Trust of Australia (NSW) undertook repairs and renovations. |
