History
It was first settled by Europeans in 1794 in a bid to acquire arable land to feed the increasing population of the penal colony at Sydney. In April 1794, Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose submitted plans for the first 22 farms on the Hawkesbury River in the present Pitt Town Bottoms area. In June 1795 a camp of aborigines opposing the landtakings was harassed by a British regiment commanded by Paterson (who later regretted the necessary injustice).
By 1811 Governor Lachlan Macquarie established the five Macquarie Towns in the area. They are Windsor, Richmond, Castlereagh, Wilberforce and Pitt Town. Many of the early 19th century buildings still survive today. Ebenezer has the oldest surviving church and school building in Australia. Windsor District Council was formed in 1843 and disbanded in 1846. In 1871 the Borough Council of Windsor was founded and the Richmond Borough Council followed in 1872. The two Councils amalgamated in 1949 to become Windsor Municipal Council. Colo Shire Council was established in 1906 and joined Windsor Municipal Council in 1981 to become Hawkesbury Shire Council. In 1989, Hawkesbury became a City.
Read more about this topic: City Of Hawkesbury
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I think that Richard Nixon will go down in history as a true folk hero, who struck a vital blow to the whole diseased concept of the revered image and gave the American virtue of irreverence and skepticism back to the people.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)