Windsor, New South Wales

Windsor is a town in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Windsor is located in the local government area of the City of Hawkesbury. It sits on the Hawkesbury River, on the north-western outskirts of the Sydney metropolitan area.

History
Windsor is the third-oldest place of British settlement on the Australian continent. Settlement at the location was first established about 1791, near the head of navigation on the Hawkesbury River (known as Deerubbin in Dharuk) and taking advantage of the fertile river flats for agriculture. The area was originally called Green Hills, but renamed Windsor (after Windsor in England). The town was officially proclaimed in a Government and General Order issued from Government House, Sydney, dated 15 December, 1810, Governor Lachlan Macquarie having "marked out the district of Green Hills", which he "... called Windsor", after Windsor-on-the-Thames.

Whilst in Windsor, Macquarie ordered the main institutions of organised settlement to be erected, such as a church, a school-house, a gaol and a "commodious inn" (The Macquarie Arms). Of these new buildings, the most imposing was Francis Greenway's Saint Matthew's Anglican Church, of which Macquarie himself chose the site. Samuel Marsden, principal chaplain of the colony, consecrated the church on December 8th, 1822.

In 1813 a report was given to Governor Macquarie from Earl Bathurst detailing a proposed invasion of the Hawkesbury River by France. This planned invasion that did not eventuate, targeted the Windsor granary in order to cut off supply to Sydney, showing the relative importance of this new settlement on a global scale.

Windsor is approximately 60 kilometres north-west of Sydney, and the location was chosen because of the agricultural potential of the area and because the location was accessible by coastal shipping from Sydney. It was known as the "bread basket", ensuring the survival of the starving colony. The extensive agriculture caused major silting in the Hawkesbury River, by the 1890s the river had become so blocked with silt, ships could not travel up to Windsor from the coast. By then the railway, in 1864, and the road, in 1814, had been built.

On January 1, 1803 Daniel Egan was born in Windsor. He went on to become Mayor of Sydney in 1853. Many of the oldest surviving European buildings in Australia are located at Windsor.

Geography
Floods are a major concern in Windsor. Its proximity to the Hawkesbury River has resulted in numerous disastrous floods. A horseshoe on the outside wall of the Macquarie Arms pub marks the level the flood peaked at in 1867, when beaches along the Hawkesbury to Barrenjoey were littered with the debris from the town.

Transport
The spread of the suburbs of metropolitan Sydney has almost reached Windsor, and the town is now regarded as an outer suburb, though still retaining its appeal as a small country town. Windsor railway station (opened December 1st, 1864 ), is on the Richmond branch of the Western Line of the CityRail network.

Media
The studios of local community radio station Hawkesbury Radio are located in Windsor. Windsor was also the outdoor filming location for the television series A Country Practice.