Sydney’s early penal settlement soon ran out of food as the shores around Botany Bay were too sandy to support agriculture. In 1789 Captain Arthur Phillip sailed north to Broken Bay and sighted the mouth of a river which Phillip named the Hawkesbury River after Lord Hawkesbury. He travelled to the area which had taken on the name ‘Green Hills” (now known as Windsor), where he noted arable land ideal for growing fruit and vegetables, and for grazing livestock.

By 1794, 22 families were farming the area, with more constantly arriving. At that time, much of the transportation was by river. When Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived in Sydney in 1810, part of his brief was to prevent further losses of food stores, buildings and possessions caused by floods which had plagued the Hawkesbury since 1794. Macquarie gave these instructions high priority and established townships on the high ground in various parts of the district. Today many fine buildings from the 19th Century still survive providing insight into early European colonisation.

Wilberforce, one of Macquarie’s five towns planned in 1810, is located on the left bank of the Hawkesbury River, about 7kms north of Windsor. It was named by Macquarie in 1810 after William Wilberforce (1759-1833), English politician, anti-slavery campaigner and one of the founding members of the RSPCA . Early in 1811, Macquarie returned with James Meehan, the surveyor, to mark out the township.