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The Wedding Present
By James Dotson and Jordan Stuart

What do you get a young couple for a wedding present when they have everything? Governor Macquarie had this problem in 1810, he solved it by giving the couple a nice suburb.

It happened this way : When Governor Macquarie arrived in Sydney he had with him, as his second in command, Colonel Maurice O'Connell, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars.

O’Connell had served so long in the army all over the world that he did not have time to marry and settle in a home of his own. In Sydney, he met Governor Bligh’s widowed daughter, Mrs. Mary Putland, and, after a whirlwind courtship, he married her. And there was Governor Macquarie’s problem. When the deputy Governor  marries the daughter of the previous Governor, it’s necessary  to give them something worthwhile for a wedding present. But, in the whole of Sydney , there just wasn’t anything good enough.

Macquarie’s solution was to mark off a couple of thousand acres of the choicest land available, and give them that. The happy couple gave the land the name of O’Connell’s birth place in Ireland …….Riverston . And Riverstone it is today

When you think about it, it must have been the only suburb in Sydney to start it’s life as a wedding present!

 

  

Left : Mary Putland

 

 

Right : Governor Lachlan Macquarie

 

Early Land Grants
By Kiernan Mannix and Vicky Hollands

In 1810 the first land grant was made in the district that was given to Lieutenant Colonel M.C.O'Connell of the seventy third regiment.

Other early grants and purchases in the district were acquired by Richard Rouse, Reverend Samuel Marsden, John Schofield, James Ruse, John Martin, Joseph Pye and John Pye.
 

The land was used for grazing and timber cutting but later some of the smaller holdings were used for orchards and vineyards. O’Connell’s property was offered for sale on four occasions between the years of 1845 and 1881. O’Connell’s widow then sold the pegged out land.
 
By this time the township of Riverstone had been pegged out and the population was steadily increasing. In the first federal elections of 1901 the electoral roll showed that there were 204 adult males living in Riverstone.

 

The Battle Of Vinegar Hill
By Daniel Sparks and Matthew Smit

•The convicts were sick and tired of the British army pushing them around. So they formed a group to rise up over them. It took a lot of thinking and planning to pull this off. The convicts took off to Vinegar Hill. The British army found out that they were gone.  

The battle began shortly before dawn .The convicts were placed on the hill. The British moved in on the opposing (convicts). The battle started on the 4th of March, 1804.

The British army won against the convicts. The convicts did not get the freedom they wanted. They went back to work for the British.

 

The Battle of Vinegar Hill

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