NSWPlanned settlement
Windsor
The Hawkesbury granary that Macquarie lifted above the floods.
1810Macquarie names the Green Hills township Windsor
WHAT STARTED IT
Farmers were first placed on the rich Hawkesbury river flats in 1794, near where South Creek joins the river, and a village called Green Hills grew there. The flats fed the colony but flooded often, so in 1810 Governor Macquarie marked out a town named Windsor on the higher ground beside it.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Under Macquarie the town gained a square, barracks and St Matthew’s Church, designed by Francis Greenway, whose foundation stone was laid in 1817. Windsor became the market and court town for the Hawkesbury farms. The railway from Blacktown arrived in 1864, and three years later the river’s greatest recorded flood swept the low ground around the town.
TURNING POINTS
1794Acting Governor Francis Grose settles 22 farmers on the Hawkesbury near the mouth of South Creek.
1810On 6 December Macquarie writes that he has given the name of Windsor to the town intended for the Green Hills district.
1817Macquarie lays the foundation stone of St Matthew’s Church, designed by Francis Greenway.
1864The railway from Blacktown opens through Windsor to Richmond, with regular trains from 1 December.
1867The Hawkesbury’s greatest recorded flood inundates the river flats and low-lying farms of the district.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A historic town on Sydney’s north-western edge. Thompson Square, George Street and St Matthew’s Church keep many colonial and Victorian buildings.