NSWFarming
Somersby
Orchardists named this plateau after a Lincolnshire village.
1910sOrchards on the plateau
WHAT STARTED IT
Somersby sits on a plateau north-west of Gosford, where orchards were established by the early 1900s. It was named by orchardist Charles Robinson, whose family came from Somersby in Lincolnshire.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
A state farm school for boys opened at Mount Penang, on the Pacific Highway at Somersby, from 1912. Old Sydney Town, a re-creation of the early colony, drew visitors from 1975 until it closed in 2003.
TURNING POINTS
1910sOrchardists are working the Somersby district before the First World War.
1912Boys begin clearing the Mount Penang farm school site on the highway at Somersby.
1975Old Sydney Town is officially opened by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.
2003Old Sydney Town closes, and Mount Penang is listed on the State Heritage Register.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A semi-rural locality of farms, an industrial area near the Kariong interchange, the Australian Reptile Park and the Mount Penang Parklands. Somersby Falls lies in the surrounding Brisbane Water National Park.