Port Macquarie is located halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, on the North Coast of NSW.
Situated on the Hastings River, Port Macquarie is a vibrant coastal town with a rich and diverse history.
The Birpai People (a number of variant spellings)
The Aboriginal understanding of the world, often called the Dreamtime, was a term used by early anthropologists which relates
to a time before, when heroic ancestral spirits, often with supernatural abilities, created the earth, the sky and everything else.
When the Ancestral spirits came up out of the earth and down from the sky and walked on the land, they travelled, hunted and fought, and as they did so, they created all the people, animals and vegetation. The ancestral spirits also gave the Aboriginal people rules for living and their totems.
If the totem you are given was a kangaroo, then it would mean that your ancestor was a kangaroo, and all kangaroos are your relatives. You could not hunt or eat your totem animal.
The Birpai People also tell a Dreamtime story of three brothers from the Birpai tribe, who were killed by a witch named Widjirriejuggi and buried where mountains now stand.
The Gathang Aboriginal language mostly disappeared after the last fluent speaker died in the 1960s. Linguists are working to recreate the language using old recordings and research.
Bark was removed from suitable trees to make objects such as shields or canoes by making deep cuts in a tree with a stone axe or other tool. Hastings River oyster farmer, Thomas Dick, took photos of the Birpai people in the early 1900s, making shields or performing other traditional activities.
Thomas Dick also recorded many of his observations about Aboriginal people:
"The aboriginal woman during
the period of pregnancy recognised
that too much laying down all day was
no good for the mother to be, and
they led an active life right up to (he
time of birth. The new-born baby
was wrapped in possum skin, the fur
side inward, and was carried in the
mother's dilly bag, slung on her back
and fastened around her neck with a
tough vine."
News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW : 1882 - 1950) 7 August 1943
Bark canoes and spears were used in shallow waterways to obtain fish.
Great forces of change were soon to impact Aboriginal people, who had been separated from other human groups for thousands of years. Their
way of life, use of land and culture was to be seriously affected. It would be a clash between the most culturally and technologically dissimilar humans to have ever come into contact. (
1.)
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| Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW., Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918 |
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| Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW. Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918 |
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| Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW., Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918 |
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Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW. Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 24 October 1924 |
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| Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.Armidale Chronicle (NSW : 1894 - 1929), Saturday 28 April 1923 |
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| Scenes of native life are from photographs by Mr. T. Dick,- Port Macquarie, NSW.Armidale Chronicle (NSW : 1894 - 1929), Saturday 28 April 1923 |
British Explorers
On 12 May 1770, James Cook sailed along the coastline now known as Port Macquarie-Hastings. He wrote:
"In the PM as we run along shore we saw several smooks a little way inland from the sea and one upon the top of a hill which was the first we have seen upon elevated ground since we have been upon the coast. At sun set... three remarkable large high hills lying contiguous to each other and not far from the shore bore NNW. As these hills bore some resemblance to each other we call'd them the Three Brothers."
Interestingly, the hills that Cook called the Three Brothers, were the subject of the Aboriginal Dreamtime creation story of three brothers, mentioned above.
Tacking Point was named by Matthew Flinders, the first person to circumnavigate Australia in July 1802, with his cat, Trim.
Europeans first visited the Port Macquarie area in 1818, when John Oxley
surveyed the region and named it after the Governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie. Oxley camped at the end of today's Owen Street.
The Hastings River was named after the Governor-General of India at around the same time. Although it was not explored properly until Oxley returned in 1819.
Penal Settlement
In 1821, thirty-three years after the British settlement at Port Jackson, Governor Macquarie sent Captain Francis Allman, with 40 soldiers and 60 convict labourers, to Port Macquarie, on board the
Lady Nelson, the
Mermaid and the
Prince Regent, to establish a new penal settlement, which was to serve as a place of secondary punishment for convicts of the worst kind.
Port Macquarie became the most
northerly settlement of the colony.
Newcastle was the first penal settlement for secondary punishment from 1804 to 1824, followed by Port Macquarie from 1821 to 1832.
Normally, sailing to Port Macquarie would have taken 3 days, but due to gale force winds, the ships had to take refuge at Port Stephens for 14 days and Trial bay for more than a week. The ships reached Port Macquarie 28 days after leaving Sydney and were wrecked entering the harbour due to the shallow bar. Most of the Allman family's possessions were washed overboard during the voyage.
Macquarie made a personal inspection of Port Macquarie just before he relinquished his post and sailed for England in November 1821. He also selected land adjacent to the Hastings River as the first farm for the settlement. He said of the Aboriginal people:
"lately manifested a very hostile spirit...by frequently throwing spears at the men employed in procuring rosewood and cedar, a very useful man was killed".
Also, in November 1821, sugarcane began to be grown in the region, in the area of Port Macquarie's courthouse. The first sugar mill was established in 1824, but the industry was abandoned in the 1860s.
A log building with plastered inside walls
was built for female prisoners. A well in Munster Street was used by the women.
Stephen Partridge, who had been the Superintendent of Convicts, become the first publican in Port Macquarie in 1830.
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| Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842), Saturday 17 March 1821 |
The first Government House in Port Macquarie, built for commandant Francis Allman in 1821, was a one-storey weatherboard building. Other buildings were divided into Military Department, Civil Administration and Convict Accommodation.
By 1822 other than the weatherboard buildings for the commandant, there were barracks, a guardhouse, provision store and granary, hospital, St Thomas's Church and bark huts for 300 male convicts and kitchen gardens. (where Port Macquarie Primary School now stands was once the Soldier's Brick Barracks)
As convicts became
aware of the road over
the Blue Mountains, built 1814-15, many tried to escape westwards, and so, more convicts were sent to the isolated Port Macquarie. However, by 1825, Governor Brisbane had decided that the penal settlement at Port Macquarie would soon close as escape was too easy.
The supply ship Isabella was seized by convicts in 1824 when she was anchored off the bar at Port Macquarie. Out at sea, the pilot and the ship's crew were cast adrift. The Isabella was never heard from or seen again. Two cannons at Gaol Point were fired at the escaping convicts.
From 1824 to 1826, a post office building
was constructed. The post office moved to one of the overseer’s cottages by 1830.
Rollands Plains was established in March 1825 as part of Port Macquarie Agricultural Establishment.
In 1825 there were 1100 prisoners at Port Macquarie.
Archibald Clunes Innes was the commandant of the penal settlement from November 1826 to April 1827. During the 1830s, Innes was extremely rich. Then, during the1840s credit squeeze, he lost almost everything. In 1852 he was bankrupt. The ruins of his house lie 11 kilometres south of Port Macquarie.
By September 1827 there were 530 convicts at Port Macquarie.
Australia's fifth oldest church, St Thomas' Anglican Church, was built by convict labour between 1824 and 1828, with walls of one-metre thick hand-made brick. Governor Macquarie directed that t
he Church be built before the gaol as it had more chance of saving souls. |
| Port Macquarie St. Thomas' Church, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 19 November 1919 |
An early map shows that a gaol was built about 1824. A new gaol was built between 1837 and 1840, east of the military barracks at the top of Clarence Street. However, convict transportation to NSW ended in 1840. (Cockatoo Island in Sydney was still planned as a place of secondary punishment in 1839, closing in 1869)
By about 1825, almost 1,500 convicts were engaged in
public works, timber getting and agriculture. Military personnel, public officials and convicts had separate housing at this time. A brick building adjacent to the military barracks received some alterations in this period and in 1826, became the new Government House.
The cutter,
Regent BIrd, built at Port Macquarie,
was launched from the dock on 30 July 1827.
In 1828, Aboriginal people were issued blankets. This initiative was instigated by Governor Macquarie in 1814. Traditionally, Aboriginal people used animal skins of possums or kangaroos. The "Blanket lists" also detailed Aboriginal people's English name, Native Name, Probable Age, Number of wives, Children, Tribe, and District of Usual Resort.
Eliza Edwards (nee Winnicott) was Matron of the Female Factory at Port Macquarie and the wife of the gaol keeper, Thomas Edwards, who was originally one of 300 convicts transported on the
Lady Castlereagh in December 1817.
A proclamation was issued inviting free settlers into the area on the 15 August 1830. However, Port Macquarie continued as a convict settlement until 1832. Liquor had been excluded, in theory, from the settlement until the arrival of free settlers.
Postal services were extended to Port Macquarie from Sydney GPO in 1830.
After the closure of the penal establishment, the town was laid out by the surveyors, with a new grid of streets. The penal buildings used as a depot for "specials" (educated prisoners) and invalids.
"The Settlers Arms", run by Charles Farrell, was the second hotel license for Port Macquarie.
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| New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 - 1900), Wednesday 24 September 1834 |
Smallpox outbreaks devastated Aboriginal people at Port Macquarie during 1831. Aboriginal People lived with infectious diseases such as trachoma, yaws and hepatitis B for thousands of years. However, they had never been exposed to smallpox and had no immunity. (
1.) Historians debate whether smallpox was introduced by Makassan trepangers in northern Australia, or by the British.
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| Sydney Monitor (NSW : 1828 - 1838), Wednesday 18 April 1832 |
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| Port Macquarie, NSW, 1832 / painted by Joseph Backler, Dixson Galleries, Joseph Backler arrived in Sydney as a convict in 1832, and within a year he was sent to Port Macquarie penal settlement in 1833 because of poor behaviour. While in Port Macquarie he was commissioned to make several views of the settlement. At least four of these have survived — all taken from the northern side of the Hastings River. State Library of New South Wales |
English-born convict James Hardy Vaux, who wrote a dictionary of "flash" or cant language for the commandant of the penal settlement at Newcastle (Coal River) in 1819, was sent to Port Macquarie in 1831, and wrote,
The Life and Experiences of an Ex-Convict in Port Macquarie.
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| Relics of convict days in Old Gaol, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 9 October 1918 |
A new barracks for invalids was opened in 1840. Many free settlers arrived to the town which had 41 brick & 25 wooden houses, a Female factory, Gaol, and Prisoners barracks.
From the 1830s-40s, the remaining convicts built roads, a gaol, a dam and a bridge over Kooloonbung Creek.
C.B.C., the first bank at Port Macquarie, opened in 1840. Closed in 1844.
In 1840 the Settlers Arms was held up by bushrangers the Jewboy gang. See
here
A road was built from the New England region in 1840.
The Methodist Church opened 1841. And in the following year, the Presbyterian Church and School were established.
The depression of the 1840s impacted many people of the area.
The ex-convict James Tucker, using a pseudonym, is alleged to have written whilst at Port Macquarie, three works: "Jemmy Green in Australia", a comedy in three acts; "The Grahames' Vengeance", a historical drama in three acts by "Otto von Rosenberg"; and "Ralph Rashleigh or the Life of an Exile", by "Giacomo di Rosenberg", the advertisement of which was dated 31 December 1845. The manuscripts of these works were first noticed publicly in the Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 1892, the author being described as "a convict, an architect by profession … who had been transported for forgery." See
here
Many pastoralists grew maize, sugar cane and established vineyards.
Douglas Vale Vineyard was established in 1859. However, the homestead, the oldest timber building in Port Macquarie, was built in 1862. First wine produced here in 1867.
Port Macquarie School of Arts
established in 1866.
Edward St Aubyn Kingsford (harbour pilot) lived on the corner of Owen and Burrawan Streets in 1868.
The courthouse was designed by colonial architect James Barnet and built in 1869.
The Electric Telegraph connected Armidale to Port Macquarie in 1869. A telegraph station opened at Port Macquarie in the same year.
1870
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| Clarence Street, Port Macquarie, NSW. c1870 |
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| View of town showing back of Royal Hotel and old Court House - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1870 |
Tacking Point Lighthouse was erected in 1879.
1880s
The
Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate was published from 1882 to 1950.
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| View of Clarence Street looking east from Horton Street intersection - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1880 |
The 968-ton iron steamer
Wotonga struck rocks near Tacking Point, Port Macquarie, on 2 January 1882, there was no hope of recovery.
1890s
Historic Roto House was built in 1891 and belonged to the Flynn family.
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| Jacob Healey's Family Emporium. C 1890. Horton St, Port Macquarie. The Sydney Photo Co.SLNSW |
Port Macquarie Council building opens on Clarence Street in 1892.
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| Port Macquarie Post and Telegraph Office, no date, NSW State Archives |
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| Port Macquarie Court House, NSW, no date, NSW State Archives |
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| Port Macquarie Gaol, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Saturday 12 November 1898, |
Port Macquarie gaol closed and the new police station opened in 1899.
1900s
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| Port Macquarie area, NSW, circa. 1905. Ceremonial carving of tree in process. Headdresses of that type not usually associated with NSW. Photo credit: Thomas Dick |
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| A wing of the old Gaol, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 25 September 1907 |
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| One of the entrances of the old gaol. Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 25 September 1907 |
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| The Ruins of Lake Innes Mansion, near Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 1 April 1908 |
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| A corner of one of the yards, showing a section of the cells, Port Macquarie Gaol, NSW. Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 1 April 1908 |
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| Hospital in Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - 1908, Miss Brenda Bertram was appointed Matron of this hospital in 1908. Aussie~mobs |
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| Oddfellows Lodge procession in William Street on way to Oxley oval - Port Macquarie, NSW, c1910 |
Port Macquarie does not have a railway station. However, Wauchope train station is nearby. The North Coast railway line
was built between 1905 and 1932.
WWI
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| Studio portrait of 3193 Private Henry George Reynolds, 18th Battalion, of Port Macquarie, NSW. A buttermaker prior to enlisting on 7 August 1915, he embarked from Sydney, NSW, aboard HMAT Suevic on 20 November 1915. He was killed in action in France on 4 August 1916, aged 23. AWM |
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| St. Agnes' R C Church, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915 ((The original St Agnes Catholic Church on Church Hill, Port Macquarie, was built in 1878) |
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| Methodist Church, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915 |
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| The Presbyterian Church and Manse, Port Macquarie, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1919), Wednesday 7 July 1915 |
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| Arrival of "North Coasters" recruiting march in Port Macquarie during World War I - Port Macquarie, NSW, 1916, by Splashes Studio, State Library of New South Wales |
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| The North Coasters camped on Gaol Hill. It was then the Showground - Port Macquarie, NSW, January 1916, by Splashes Studio, State Library of New South Wales |
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| William Street, Port Macquarie, NSW, Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 15 May 1918 |
1920s
"PORT MACQUARIE, Thursday. — Centenary
Day was celebrated at Port Macquarie yesterday.
Proceedings began with a procession sym-
bolic of Oxley entering from the tablelands
over 100 years ago. It was headed by six
aborigines in native costume, carrying spears,
boomerangs, nullah nullahs, and dead mar-
supials. Following were 10 mounted men.
dogs, water casks on pack horses, seven horses,
and a waggon, and a bullock waggon."
PORT MACQUARIE. (1921, April 1). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930)
The Port Macquarie War Memorial was originally dedicated on 30 March 1921, additional plaques for other conflicts have been added over time. In 1966 the memorial was relocated and later re-dedicated on 2 November 2000.
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| Sydney Mail (NSW : 1912 - 1938), Wednesday 20 April 1921 |
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| Centenary celebrations - Port Macquarie, NSW (Junior Red Cross), 1921 |
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| Soldiers' Memorial Port Macquarie, NSW, 1922, NSW State Archives |
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| Horton St Port Macquarie, showing Soldiers' Memorial, NSW. Dated: 1920-1922, NSW State Archives |
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| Aboriginal scenes on the Hastings River, NSW, Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 28 November 1924 |
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| Port Macquarie News and Hastings River Advocate (NSW : 1882 - 1950), Saturday 20 November 1926 |
1930s
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| Royal Hotel at Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - circa 1930, Aussie~mobs |
Hatsatouris' theatre and shops (Ritz theatre, now Majestic Theatre on Clarence St)) was built 1937.
Paget Hall, the home of Captain Thomas Paget Morton, who had served in the Napoleonic wars, was demolished to make way for the theatre.
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| MR. PETER HATSATOURIS, Port Macquarie GREAT Screen CONTEST Opens DOOR to FAME! Search for Film Stars of the Future Closes Shortly; Enter To-day! Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 21 July 1934 |
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| The oldest building in Port Macquarie, NSW, dating from 1821. It originally served as a surgery or outpatients' dressing room in convict days. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954), Friday 25 February 1938 |
1940s and WWII
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| Royal Hotel, Port Macquarie, NSW, in 1940, Aussie~mobs |
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| Hotel Macquarie at Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - circa 1940, Aussie~mobs |
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| Horton Street, Port Macquarie, N.S.W. - 1940s, Aussie~mobs |
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| United States of America Liberty Ship "Starr King" sinks off Port Macquarie, NSW, after being torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. During the six months after 18 January 1943, Japanese attacked 21 Allied ships totalling 109,651 tons off the East Coast of Australia and ships totalling 50,022 tons were sunk. AWM |
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| Women's pea picking contest at port Macquarie, NSW. Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Saturday 30 October 1943 |
The Women’s Agricultural Security Production Service (WASPS) made a significant contribution to the national war effort during World War 2 by ensuring food crops were planted and harvested. The Port Macquarie WASPS branch was formed in April 1943.
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| The Women's Agricultural Security Production Service known as W.A.S.P.S. Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Thursday 10 August 1944, |
1950s
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| Horton St. Port Macquarie, NSW, in the 1950s |
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| Sister of St Joseph’s Convent and boarding school, corner of Hay and Hayward Streets, Port Macquarie, NSW, from circa 1950. Now known as “O’Reilly House” |
Port Macquarie Airport opened in 1955.
1960s
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| Outside the Hastings District Historical Society Museum, Port Macquarie, NSW, 1966, Paul Balf |
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| View of Port Macquarie, NSW, from the tower of St. Thomas' church - 1966, Aussie~mobs |
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| View of Port Macquarie, NSW, from the tower of St. Thomas' church - 1966, Aussie~mobs |
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| Inside St. Thomas' church, Port Macquarie, From a booklet printed in 1966 about the ongoing restoration of this historical church. Aussie~mobs |
1970s
Residents of Port Macquarie asked the Builders Labourers Federation to place a green ban against the construction of high rise buildings on beach head and water front in 1974.
1990s
Nancy Wake, a prominent figure in the French Resistance during the Second World War, had lived for some time at Port Macquarie, and in 1997, she left Australia for England.
2000s
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The Alma Doepel in Port Macquarie, NSW, in 2008 |
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| Australia's oldest ship reconstruction, Notorious, a 15th Century Portuguese or Spanish Caravel, at Port Macquarie, 2013 |
A shipbuilding company based in Port Macquarie won a contract with the US Army worth more than $250 million in 2014.
The SS Wollongbar II, a freighter torpedoed by a Japanese submarine In 1943, killing 32 people on board, was discovered in 2020 off Crescent Head (58.6 km from Port Macquarie).
Around Port Macquarie
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| Port Macquarie's Historic Courthouse, NSW, was built in 1869 |
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| Port Macquarie Museum, 22 Clarence Street, Port Macquarie NSW, built 1830 |
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| Ritz Theatre, Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| Hayward House, Port Macquarie, NSW, believed to have been the home of Charles Hayward who arrived in Port Macquarie in 1826. Built about 1840, second level added 1850 |
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| Hamilton House" (former school) and "The Manor House" 188-198 Hastings River Drive, Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| Historic Flagstaff, Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| Port Macquarie Backpackers, NSW. Port Macquarie Backpackers named “Elsinore” by the Hibbard family, who build and lived in it from the late 1800s |
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| View of lady Nelson Wharf, Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| The Big Spindle, on Windmill Hill, Port Macquarie, NSW, is named "Folly" and is a play on the original name of the area "Gillman's folly". Major Innes had a windmill built here in 1825 to grind wheat and corn for the government |
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| Port Macquarie Astronomical Observatory is situated above Town Beach in Rotary Park, NSW |
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| Lighthouse Beach is located below Tacking Point Lighthouse approximately 7kms from Port Macquarie, NSW |
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| Lake Innes Ruins, Port Macquarie, NSW |
Things To Do and Places To Go
Free Heritage Walk App (search Apple Store, Google Play or Microsoft)
Heritage Walking Trail
St. Thomas’ the fifth oldest Anglican Church
Port Macquarie Historic Courthouse
The Port Macquarie Shipwreck Trail -features some thirty bronze circular plaques embedded into the lawn within Town Beach Park, fronting the Hastings River.
