The Hills District to the north-west of the Sydney basin has a long and storied history. From pre-colonisation through to today, the area has played a pivotal role in shaping Australia as a nation. In fact some of the most important moments in Australia’s history – particularly in the years immediately following European settlement – occurred in this otherwise unassuming part of the world.
So how did the Hills District that we know and love today come to be? Let’s peer into the past and find out.
Pre-colonisation
Prior to the first fleet landing on neighbouring shores in 1788, the Hills District was part of the Darug nation; an aboriginal people highly skilled as hunter-fisher-gatherers. The lands of the Darug not only covered what is now the Hills District, but also stretched down to modern-day Camden in the south and across to the foothills of the Blue Mountains.
The Hills District was a happy hunting ground for the Darug. The area received plentiful rain due to its slight elevation in comparison to the Sydney Basin, resulting in rich soils that were a boon for local floral and fauna. The Darug of the Hills District sustained themselves off a diet rich in red meat, while their coastal cousins almost exclusively ate seafood.
European Settlement
1788 marks the year that Australia was indelibly changed, with European settlement beginning in earnest. With a sizeable convict population to sustain, a series of expeditions were undertaken with the aim of exploring the local area and finding resources such as food, water and fertile land. It’s thought that Governor Phillip was the first European to grace the Hills District, on his way to discovering the Hawkesbury River to the north. With this discovery made, the Hills District became an important thoroughfare to this reliable water source.
With the arrival of the first fleet came the arrival of smallpox, and within a year the introduced disease had wiped out up to 90% of the Darug population in some areas. This allowed the Europeans to explore and claim the land of the Hills District largely uninhibited.
Access Routes and Land Grants
After the riches of the area were discovered, arterial systems were developed along Darug walking trails. Two main access roads wound through the area; the road to Windsor and Wisemans Ferry, and the Pennant Hills Road to the east. Once these access routes were established, land grants were offered along them to selected settlers.
Convict labour played an important role in opening up access to the Hills District. All of the manual labour was provided by convicts, and the challenges posed during the construction of these roads make them some of the most impressive engineering feats of the convict era.
Castle Hill Government Farm
In the early days of settlement the defining feature of the Hills District was Castle Hill Government Farm, a labour camp for mainly Irish Catholic convicts. In 1804, 3 years after the farm had been created, the prisoners organised what would be known as the Castle Hill convict rebellion – Australia’s first major uprising. While unsuccessful (24 convicts were killed, while not one government soldier was claimed), the rebellion did usher in a state of martial law within the new colony that lasted for over a week.
Burgeoning Agriculture
As settlers became more and more aware of the rich, fertile soils of the Hills District, land grants became ever more popular. Fruit – particularly stone fruit and citrus – were ideally suited to the favourable conditions of the Hills, and orchards began to spring up throughout the region from the early 1800s. Bella Vista farm was one of the first and largest orchards in the Hills, and survives – albeit in a more decorative capacity – to this day.
Wheat, maize and livestock farming were also popular amongst Hills District settlers, and this agriculture-centric approach continued until the mid-20th century, by which time the ever-expanding metropolis of Sydney began to leach into the sprawling farmland.
The Switch to Suburbia
The beginnings of what we now know as the Hills District can be traced back to the 1880s, when building a railway was first explored. Prior to this, transporting goods between the Hills and the Sydney Basin was a painfully slow process. By 1902 Baulkham Hills was connected to Sydney, followed by Castle Hill in 1910. This led the way for farming land to be subdivided for residential purposes, with many of the more well-to-do residents of Sydney building large country retreats in the area.
Throughout the 20th century the suburbia of Sydney slowly spread out from the basin, with the Hills District transforming from expansive farming land into the mostly residential and industrial area we know today. The rural beginnings of the region aren’t lost however, with heritage sites like Bella Vista providing a truly unique look into the Hills District’s past.
From hunter-gatherer land to today’s modern metropolis, the Hills District has played a pivotal role in developing Australia into the country that we know and love today.
And the very best way to get to know this storied part of the world is to come and see it for yourself.
