Print this page Take Me To The River - Windsor History Walk

This is a five-hour walk starting and ending at Windsor railway station. Settlement along Dyarubbin / Hawkesbury River saw the best and worst in survival behaviour. The walk takes in the cemetery at St. Matthew’s church, old pubs and the river. Windsor has kept its character as a Macquarie town, and has a great museum. This is an opportunity to think about the process of colonisation. Meet at Windsor station 10 minutes before the tour starts so it can commence on time. Please check the Transport NSW website for further travel information on how to get to Windsor train station.

This walk will go ahead whatever the weather, except where the guide deems there to be a threat to health and safety. In this situation you will be contacted with an alternative date. Please ensure your mobile phone number is up-to-date with WEA before enrolling and ensure that you have it with you on the day in case the tutor needs to contact you. Participants must have walking gear: walking shoes, backpack, hat, water, food and clothes for the weather conditions.

DELIVERY MODE

• Face-to-Face

SUGGESTED READING

• Karskens, G. (2009) The Colony: A History of Early Sydney, Allen and Unwin ISBN 978 1 74237 364 5
• Karskens, G. (2020) People of the River: Lost worlds of early Australia Allen and Unwin ISBN 978 1 76029 223 2
• Gapps, S. (2018) The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the early colony 1788 - 1817
• Stewart, L. (2015) Blood revenge: Murder on the Hawkesbury 1799 Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd ISBN 9781925078466 (paperback) also available ebook
• Tench, Watkin 1788 Comprising A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson various editions and online
• Chater Forth, L. (2012) Margaret Catchpole: Her Life and Her Letters self-published ISBN 978 0 646 56511 8

COURSE OUTLINE

• Buildings and their people: St. Matthew’s & Francis Greenway, Macquarie Arms & Macquarie
• The river: feast and flood, tributaries, choke points, frontier violence
• People: Gomebeere, Governor Phillip, Watkin Tench, Yellahmiende, Teribandy, Jemmy, Little George, Governor Macquarie, Andrew Thompson, William Cox, midwife Margaret Catchpole, convict-to-respectable Sarah Cobcroft, developer Maria Cope.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

1. Gain an understanding the Nepean Hawkesbury river system
2. Imagine the clash of cultures at first contact
3. Gain knowledge about the frontier of the penal colony and its consequences
4. Understand why this area is known the bread basket of the colony: the river giveth, the river taketh away
5. Understand how to create a small settler society: Macquarie
6. Support a healthy lifestyle by walking.