By 1794 the first 22 European settlers had arrived on the banks of the Hawkesbury River and South Creek. The following years many more families came, and the settlement of Windsor, then called Green Hills, was established.

On 6 December 1810, the town of Windsor was one of five selected by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to provide safe residences and storage of produce for farmers who had already settled on flood prone land on the banks of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. It was named nostalgically for the township it resembled in England.

Drawn up by surveyors on Macquarie’s personal instructions during January 1811, his plan for Windsor town was a grand, united township with no less than nine cross streets and three to five long parallel streets. Centred around St Matthews Anglican Church and McQuade Park, it encompassed today’s suburbs of Windsor and South Windsor (now divided by the railway line).

Although the plan was for a town of surprisingly modern dimensions, the charm of the old Green Hills township was retained, Today the original settlement may still be seen in the stately public buildings, the river and Thompson Square on the northernmost end of the ridge.