Welcome to the Paterson River website, focused on the early history of the Paterson district. To get a feel for the site you could start with:

• an overview of settlement from 1812-1821
• the site of first settlement: Old Banks
• an overview of Aboriginal history of the area
• an overview of settlement from 1822
• the start of Paterson township

200 years of European settlement on the Paterson River in 2012

In January 1812 Governor Lachlan Macquarie visited Newcastle and travelled about 30km up the Hunter River. After returning to Sydney he permitted four men to take up small farms on the Paterson River at Patersons Plains as a reward for procuring a special order of cedar logs. Three of the men were convicts (Benjamin Davis, George Pell and John Swan) while the fourth, John Tucker jnr, was born in the colony.

John's Swan's original land is now part of Lemon Grove, while John Tucker's is part of Albion Farm - see map, also see overview of early settlement.

New book on the Women of Tocal

Tocal has released a new book titled 'Women in the history of Tocal'. The story starts with the role of women in the Aboriginal society who would have lived on the Tocal lands for thousands of years before Europeans. It continues with women involved in Tocal from its European settlement in 1822 until it became an agricultural college in 1965 ... read more on the Tocal web site .

The name "Guygallon"?

We are hoping to learn the derivation or significance of the name ""Guygallon" which is a property on the upper Paterson River. In letters written by James Webber in 1845 he repeatedly called the property "Guy galling" and it is also called "Guygalling" in an advertisement for the sale of tobacco in 1842 (Hunter River Gazette, 2 April 1842). "Guygallon" and "Guygallen" are probably corrupted forms of the name "Guygalling" originally given to the property by its first owner, John Webber.

If anyone can shed any light on the name, please contact me.