Indigenous Port Macquarie sits within Birpai (Biripi, Bripi, Biripai,
Birrbay) country, and the Birpai people are recognised as the traditional custodians of the land on which Port Macquarie is located. Port Macquarie was long known to the Birpai people as Guruk. The Birpai Local Aboriginal Land Council provides positive support, information and responsible governance for the Aboriginal community, while also cultivating strong links with the broader community. Before British colonisation, large clans of Birpai people resided in and around Port Macquarie, particularly at places such as King's Creek, Blackman's Point, Camden Haven and Rolland's Plains. They lived in large domed huts which provided protection against the region's heavy rains and were capable of accommodating up to ten people. Oxley noted that "the natives in the vicinity of the port appeared very numerous...were all handsome, well-made men, stout in their persons, and showing evident signs of good living...were evidently acquainted with the use of firearms...their dread of its appearance", and that "the port abounds with fish, the sharks were larger and more numerous than I have ever before observed...the forest hills and rising grounds abounded with large kangaroos and the marshes afford shelter and support to innumerable wildfowl. Independent of the Hastings River, the area is generally well watered, there is a fine spring at the very entrance to the Port." • Captain
Francis Allman, April 1821 – April 1824 • Captain John Rolland, April 1824 – November 1824 • Lieutenant George Carmac, November 1824 – December 1824 • Captain Henry Gillman, January 1825 – February 1826 • Captain Samuel Wright, February 1826 – November 1826 • Captain
Archibald Clunes Innes, November 1826 – April 1827 • Lieutenant Thomas Owen, April 1827 – October 1827 • Captain Francis Crotty, October 1827 – June 1828 • Captain Henry Smyth, November 1828 – June 1832 During the 1820s, merchants such as
Simeon Lord and
Solomon Wiseman utilised the convict labour to extract large amounts of
cedar and
rosewood timber upriver from Port Macquarie. In November 1821, Port Macquarie became the site of the first sugar cane to be cultivated in Australia. James Williams, an Afro-American convict from
Antigua with knowledge of cane-growing, was placed in charge. This colonial government funded plantation worked by convict labourers was later expanded to the nearby
Rollands Plains and
Ballengarra areas under the management of Thomas A. Scott. Flood, drought and fire caused the plantations to be abandoned by 1831. Scott later lived near
Gosford, where the suburb
Tascott is named after him. The
Walker pipe organ is the only one of its type in the
Southern Hemisphere. The castellated tower permits excellent views of the coastline, town and river. This church is now classified by the
National Trust of Australia (NSW) and has been registered on the National Estate heritage list. In 1830
Major Archibald Clunes Innes built
Lake Innes House which grew over the next decade into a luxurious establishment and attracted many notable visitors. It is now a ruin and is managed by the
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service.
Frontier conflict As the British encroached into the region from 1821, bloody conflict between the colonisers and the resident Indigenous people occurred. The first recorded incident happened in November 1821 where a convict cedar-getter was killed upriver from Port Macquarie. In 1825, after two convict shingle-splitters were killed at Blackman's Point, a detachment of soldiers from the
3rd Regiment of Foot were sent out on a
punitive expedition. They shot dead a great number of Aboriginal people, afterwards raping then killing the captured females. This has become known as the Blackman's Point massacre. In 1830, a stockman was killed by Aboriginal people at Rollands Plains, leading the commandant at the time, Captain Henry Smyth, to issue an edict prohibiting 'the natives' from carrying anything resembling weapons near the British settlements on pain of death.
Free settlement The region was first opened to settlers in 1830 and soon after the penal settlement was closed. Settlers quickly took advantage of the area's good pastoral land, timber resources and fisheries. The first land grants along the Hastings River were assigned in 1830 to people such as Jeremiah Warlters, William Cross and Matthew Mitchell. In 1974, residents of Port Macquarie requested that the
Builders Labourers Federation place a
green ban against the construction of high rise buildings on beach head and water front. Easterbrook died in 1984, before the culmination of her conservation efforts, the beautiful coastal walks, were completed. == Heritage listings ==