In the year 2021 Port Macquarie marked 200 years of European settlement. Here you will find information about the military, the convicts and the civilian personnel who founded the penal settlement that grew into the town of Port Macquarie.
Thirty-three years after the British settlement at Port Jackson was established, three small ships set sail from Sydney to found a new penal settlement on the Hastings River. The ships were the Lady Nelson, the Mermaid and the Prince Regent.
Officers and men of the 48th Regiment, under the command of Captain Francis Allman, arrived at trhe Hastings River on the 17th -18th April 1821 to establish the penal settlemnt of Port Macquarie.
The ‘First Fleet’ , which arrived at Port Macquarie in April 1821, transported 60 convicts, along with 38 soldiers, civilian officials, two wives and four children.
