Page 160 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Sydney

158  BEY OND SY DNEY

2 Hawkesbury Tour

Australia’s longest eastward-flowing river, the
Hawkesbury-Nepean, forms Sydney’s northern
and western boundaries. It was at first thought to
be two separate rivers until further exploration revealed
that they were in fact one. The section known as the
Hawkesbury runs from the Colo River Valley to Broken
Bay in the north (see pp156–7).
Settled in 1794, by 1799 the Hawkesbury Valley’s
small farms produced three-quarters of the colony’s grain.
Its riverscape is little changed since then and much of the
5 Tizzana Winery
area remains a quiet backwater. It is an area rich in relics A touch of Tuscany on the banks
of the early Colonial period, including towns and villages of the Hawkesbury, this sandstone
established during the Macquarie era of 1810–19 (see p26). winery was built in 1887 by Dr
It is also a place of great scenic grandeur, with magnificent Thomas Fiaschi. It is open to visitors
on weekends and public holidays.
vistas of one of Australia’s most beautiful rivers.
Singleton
4 Ebenezer 6 Portland Reach
Uniting Church On the river, pleasure
Built in 1809, the craft have replaced the Colo River
church and its 1817 grain barges of the past,
schoolhouse have but the area’s farming
been superbly res­ community survives.
tored. The tree under
which services were
first held still stands. Kurranjong
heights
3 Colo River Drive
This pretty route travels
along the Putty Road to
Colo, then follows the
river to Lower Portland.

Ebenezer •

Cattai

Pitt
Town
2 Tebbutts Observatory
John Tebbutt (1834–1916), an early amateur 7 Sackville Ferry
astronomer, built this observatory in Windsor It only takes a few
in 1854, where he studied the solar system minutes to cross the
and discovered a comet in 1861. river by cable ferry.
Parramatta
1 Windsor
Built in 1815, the Macquarie Arms Hotel
is just one of Windsor’s fine early Colonial
buildings. Many others, including several
by architect Francis Greenway (see p116),
remain from the town laid out in 1810.

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