If you want your area’s history all in one box, grab a copy of Windsor historian John Miller’s DVD containing a sweeping overview of Hawkesbury history.
The DVD is a recording of John’s talk to a packed room at Hawkesbury Museum on February 23 featuring all his fascinating images, with John’s commentary over the top.
The talk starts with the local Aboriginal population and takes you right up to the late 1800s. At the end you will know about all the important Hawkesbury buildings and a bit about the main movers and shakers who shaped the district over its first century of white occupation.
The talk reveals gems that bring long-past events to life, such as Lieutenant Bowen’s recollections of raids by Blue Mountains Aboriginal tribes on Hawkesbury tribes to kidnap their women, and Watkin Tench and Governor Phillip's account of coming up the Hawkesbury River in 1789 to Richmond Hill.
John also touches on Governor Philip’s meeting with Gomberee and Yarramundi at Pitt Town Bottoms, when they showed them how to get along the riverbank. Gomberee gave Governor Philip spears and stone axes and they gave him a steel tomahawk.
Then it’s on to the first farmers at Pitt Town Bottoms, where 22 land grants were given, then back down Windsor Road to the Battle of Vinegar Hill in 1804 and the hanging of the leader of the rebellion at Thompson Square in Windsor,.
The building of Ebenezer Church in 1809, and Lachlan Macquarie’s explorations around our district then give way to the stories behind the building of St Matthew’s Anglican Church and cemetery, the Arndells’ role in the Cattai area, Governor Bligh’s property at Pitt Town, the building of the Macquarie Arms and the Doctor’s House, the building of St Matthew’s Catholic church in 1840, the great 1867 flood and the tragedy of the Eather family.
Then there’s the coming of the railway to Richmond in the 1860s, Windsor Court House, Tebbutt’s Observatory, Green Hills burial ground, Craignish maternity hospital, Rose Cottage, and the oldest gravestone in the district, of a little boy who died of a red belly bite.
The last hurrah is the role of the glorious Heidelberg School artists such as Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder painting around here in the 1890s.
Councillor Sarah Richards asked for the DVD to be kept in Windsor Library, and it is also available for $20 at Hawkesbury Regional Museum in Windsor, Wisemans Books in Richmond and Ebenezer Church.
All profits from its sale will go to Hawkesbury Historical Society, to go towards more such projects.
