On 6 December 1810, the town of Richmond 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. Richmond was named by Macquarie for its resemblance to its English counterpart....’from its beautiful situation and as corresponding with that of its district’.

In 1811, the township was surveyed by James Meehan, who marked out the principal streets, town lots, market square (now Richmond Park) and the church precinct. Enormous expansion to the south occurred in 1966 with the Hobartville housing subdivision taking over the outer pastures of the Hobartville Stud.

Although the perimeter of the town has now spread beyond to Hobartville in the south-west, with some development to the north-east, the original layout is still very much as Macquarie envisaged.