Windsor, New South Wales
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Windsor is a town in New South Wales and is the third-oldest place of British settlement in Australia. It was discovered in Settlement at Windsor was established about 1791, near the head of navigation of the Hawkesbury River (Deerubbin, in Dharuk). The area was originally called Green Hills, but renamed Windsor (after Windsor in England). The town was proclaimed in about 1811.
Windsor is about 60 kilometers 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 1890's 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.
Floods are a major concern in Windsor. It's close proximity to the Hawkesbury River causing numerous disasterous 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.
The spread of the suburbs of metropolitan Sydney has almost reached Windsor, and the town is now regarded as an outer suburb. The Richmond branch of the Western Line of the CityRail network passes through the Windsor railway station.
Many of the oldest surviving European buildings in Australia are located at Windsor.