At first expansion beyond the Cumberland Plain was constrained by the difficulty of crossing the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury River and other natural barriers. By 1821 land had been granted throughout large tracts of the County of Cumberland with population clusters forming on rivers and roads. Industries sprang up to process raw materials close to farming districts, mineral deposits, and timber country.
As settlement spread beyond the Cumberland Plain the first arrivals were usually stock farmers and the labour force, mainly convict, until the end of transportation in the 1840s. From 1825 to 1829 the government tried to limit the spread of settlement beyond a specified 19 counties but this policy was a failure.
Settlement continued to spread along rivers and stock routes, spurred by the gold rush of the 1850s and the construction of railways from the 1860s. Towns which had grown up spontaneously and generated shops and hotels were consolidated by official facilities such as courthouses, railway stations and post offices.
The late 19th and early 20th century saw an increase in urban expansion which has affected the nature and survival of the archaeological resource, particularly in urban areas. Urban expansion required not only new subdivisions but also redevelopment of earlier sites. Redevelopment of old town centres may lead to locally significant sites overlying State significant early sites. Investigation of the State significant archaeology may require demolition of (non-significant) standing buildings and excavation of locally significant archaeology to enable access to the earlier deposits. These aspects should be considered in management strategies developed during the archaeological assessment.
Later 19th and early 20th century sites usually have fewer artefacts associated with specific occupations due to the introduction of municipal garbage collection or other off-site garbage disposal. The advent of reticulated town water and sewerage services means that on-site services (wells, cisterns, cess-pits)
become redundant. This may lead to specific instances of particular artefact-rich deposits within the fill of such structures during a particular period or episode.
6.2 Which places are likely to be important?
The historic settlement pattern dictates that the early centres of rural and urban development in NSW will be the places where most early archaeological sites will be found unless they have been removed by subsequent development.
Towns established in the 1790s on the Cumberland Plain were Sydney, Parramatta and Windsor (the Green Hills settlement). Other early grants were made at Prospect Hill and along the Hawkesbury River near South Creek.
In 1810 Governor Macquarie directed the establishment of new towns away from flood liable land. These were Windsor, Richmond, Pitt Town, Castlereagh and Wilberforce. Other Macquarie-era towns include Liverpool, Campbelltown, Appin and Bathurst which was established in 1815. Most early towns had an
associated agricultural hinterland where significant archaeological resources often survive on extant pastoral properties taken up by early squatters. For places such as Wollongong early occupation commenced on rural properties in 1815 with first surveys for land alienation from 1816. Wollongong town was late to develop as Kiama was initially envisaged as a more likely regional centre.
Settlements continued to be specifically established for the management of convicts, for example ewcastle (penal settlement 1804-1822) and Port Macquarie (1821-1840). Convict settlements were usually expected to engage in industrial production such as coal-mining, timber getting and lumberyards, lime burning and other production helpful in the establishment of settlement.
In the 1820s Governors Brisbane and Darling further organised town planning by directing the use of rectangular grids with standard half acre allotments and wide streets. This produced the characteristic country town plan familiar throughout 1830s NSW towns such as Maitland, Mudgee, Braidwood, Berrima,
Marulan, Bungonia, Wollongong, Kiama, Carcoar, Queanbeyan, Yass, Murrurundi and Albury. It was also applied to re-planned towns such as Port Macquarie, Goulburn (moved from North Goulburn) and Bathurst. In the 1840s new towns such as Rylstone, Orange, Wellington, Armidale, Casino, Grafton,
Cooma, Gundagai, Wagga Wagga, Deniliquin and Dubbo became established.
The development of road networks saw numerous inns provided along main transport routes to the north, south and west of Sydney throughout the Hunter region, Southern Highlands and Central West.
The early Colonial period also saw towns established by private enterprise.
Examples include Boydtown, Morpeth and Carrington. Boydtown was founded specifically for the exploitative industry of shore-based whaling. NSW towns whether private or public, were all founded after the commencement of the industrial revolution and during the development of competitive world capitalism.
From its base at Carrington the Australian Agricultural Company spread out to vast estates on the Liverpool Plains. Later private towns included Kempsey (1830s) and Jamberoo (1840s).
Prior to the development of railways individual industrial enterprises included flour milling, brick making, tanneries, sawpits and mills, breweries and similar industries based upon the processing of available raw materials. Specific mineral deposits were also exploited from time to time (an example being the iron ore near Mittagong) and this escalated with the coming of rail links. Rail links also meant that the ability to import, transport and use new or current technology was enhanced. Industries could also relocate to better sources of raw material or better ports. A surviving industrial site dated to pre-1860, especially if it has become an archaeological site, will be more likely to demonstrate the use of redundant technologies than a site which has remained in use with the introduction of updated technology later in time. In some particular instances towns were created specifically for the purpose of an industrial enterprise. Examples include oil-shale mining towns such as Joadja or Hartley Vale and many other mining towns. When the industry ceased, towns became abandoned and several are now largely archaeological sites.
Following the cessation of convict transportation in 1840, after 1850 NSW obtained self-government (1856) and also discovered gold (1851). The discovery of gold caused substantial dislocation with many unplanned townships arising on alluvial fields throughout the Central West, New England and Riverina
regions. Gold towns include Hill End, Sofala, Tuena, Crookwell, Araluen, Forbes, Grenfell and Barraba. Gold was followed by other mining booms for tin, copper, silver, arsenic, lead and zinc during the late nineteenth century.
Increasing organisation of towns and cities in the 1870s and 1880s led to the development of municipal services such as garbage collection, water and sewage. As already noted, these services usually limit the amount and nature of surviving archaeology.
Thus, it is important to be aware of, and to consider the historic context in which any given archaeological site was initially created. Knowledge of the historical geography and settlement pattern of NSW will assist in placing a particular archaeological site or ‘relic’ into a broader analytical framework. As indicated in
prior sections of this guideline, it is not only historic criteria or questions which should be considered in assessing significance for an historical archaeological site, but historical aspects such as themes, era, and period of use will provide essential information.