Paterson

History

The area was once occupied by the Wonnarua and Worimi peoples, who are Aboriginal Australian groups. The first official European in the area was the man whose name the town was to adopt, Colonel William Paterson, who, in 1801, surveyed the area beside the river that Governor King named in his honour. As with so many colonial settlements, timbercutters, after local supplies of red cedar, followed in the footsteps of the explorers and surveyors. Indeed, the Hunter River, into which the Paterson River flows, was then known as the Cedar Arm due to the abundance of timber. In 1812, four convicts (Swan, Pell, Davis and Swan) and John Tucker jnr were permitted by Governor Macquarie to commence farming on the Paterson River at "Patersons Plains", a location that came to be known as "Old Banks", as a special reward for supplying the Government with 500 cedar logs. Old Banks, in an area first surveyed by Henry Dangar in 1822–23, was the true genesis of rural settlement outside of the Sydney basin. It grew to eight farms along the river by 1818, six of them belonging to convicts. This fledgling farming community subsisted under the oversight of the locality's military station and lock-up established at the river's crossing point. Commandant Morrisett established (c.1818) the first Magistrate's Court above Newcastle in his Commandant's Cottage that he constructed at Old Banks on the farm of Pell (d.1815). However, from the early 1820s, the prominence of Old Banks as the Government's primary frontier seat of Government, and the 'original' Paterson, waned as a consequence of the establishment (from c.1818) and prolific growth of the Government's rural settlement and township at Wallis Plains (now East Maitland) ten kilometres to the south. With the construction of an overland…

Geography

It is approximately 15 minutes drive north along either Tocal or Paterson Roads from the nearest major township of Maitland. Paterson railway station lies on the North Coast railway line between Sydney and Brisbane with daily services north to Dungog and south-east to Newcastle. Adjoining areas include Duns Creek, Martins Creek and Vacy.

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  5,949
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  4,893
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  4,106
• Spotted Dove

  Spilopelia chinensis (Scopoli, 1786) · Aves
  3,706
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  3,338
• Crested Pigeon

  Ocyphaps lophotes (Temminck, 1822) · Aves
  3,029
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,380
• Gray Butcherbird

  Cracticus torquatus (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  2,342

Most recent

• M 5.1 — 2025-04-22
  18 km SW of Singleton, Australia
• M 3.3 — 2025-03-01
  12 km N of Denman, Australia
• M 2.7 — 2025-01-14
  13 km ESE of Denman, Australia
• M 4.2 — 2024-11-12
  10 km NNE of Denman, Australia
• M 4.4 — 2024-09-06
  New South Wales, Australia
• M 2.7 — 2024-08-26
  12 km SSW of Muswellbrook, Australia