Retreat and relax ... boating on the Hawkesbury.
Governor Lachlan Macquarie was a great builder and dreamer. He established the five Macquarie towns in the Hawkesbury Valley - Windsor,Richmond,Castlereagh,Wilberforce and Pitt Town. Of all these towns it is Windsor which stands as a monument to Macquarie. There is a current school of thought which claims that what modern development has done to Windsor is disgraceful. Certainly the modern bridge,the wide road which mixes historic houses with service stations,the modern malls and the refusal to keep this old town in some kind of pristine condition is shameful. However,what is left,particularly St Matthews Church,the Court House,Tebbut's observatories,the graveyard at the church,and the numerous buildings dating back to the early nineteenth century are all of interest to anyone who wants to grasp what life was like in the colony's third settlement.
Of course Windsor pre-dates Macquarie. As early as 1789 Governor Phillip had explored the district and,although it was considered isolated,the colony's need for food and the richness of the alluvial Hawkesbury river flats,ensured that settlement occurred.
Windsor can claim to be the third European settlement in Australia after Sydney Cove and Parramatta. Named after the famous royal town on the Thames,and originally called Green Hills,it was settled in 1794 when 22 settlers took up land and a road from Sydney was constructed.
Five years later the area was providing Sydney with half its grain requirements. The problem was that the river flooded regularly. Thus,when Macquarie had plans drawn up for the town in 1810 he specifically located it on a ridge above the Hawkesbury River which had flooded in 1809 causing considerable devastation to the whole area.
Today Windsor,located only 57 kilometres northwest of Sydney,is the commercial and administrative centre of the Macquarie Towns. Yet,its street patterns and its numerous historic buildings (combined inevitably with lots of shops for tourists) make it a marvellous town to explore.
Things to see
Hawkesbury Museum and Tourist Centre
A suitable starting place for any visit to Windsor and Richmond is the Hawkesbury Museum and Tourist Centre located at 7 Thompson Square (enter the town on the Windsor Road which becomes Bridge Street,turn left at George Street - Thompson Square in one block along). It is open from 10.00 a.m. - 4.00 p.m. and has an excellent range of material about all the Macquarie towns as well as maps and descriptive walks around Windsor and Richmond.
Before you explore the town have a careful look at the Museum's displays which include Aboriginal artefacts as well as chronicling the European settlement of the area from earliest times (including a plan for some farms which dates back to 1794) through the development of the town after 1810 to the river economy of the nineteenth century and the development of the RAAF base at Richmond.
There is a remarkable photograph of the Hawkesbury Museum Building in 1879 which shows an uninterrupted view of the river and no development at all. The museum was built in the 1820s and used as an inn before becoming the office of'The Australian'newspaper from 1871-1899. For more details (02) 4577 2310