Changes in local land use

The area was first settled by Europeans in 1821 when a penal settlement was established. Many convicts engaged in agriculture, with wheat, tobacco, cotton, vegetables, maize and sugar growing. Initially small areas of land were cleared to support this.

A painting of Port Macquarie soon after settlement

Some growth occurred in the 1860s and 1880s with the arrival of pastoralists, who used the land mainly for maize and sugar growing and vineyards. Timber has always been an important industry in the area, with many timber mills established in the late 1800s. By the start of the 1900s the main agricultural pursuit was dairying, although this changed to beef cattle farming by the late 1900s. 

On Transit Hill and surrounds, fruit and vegetables were extensively grown.  This began to wind back as residential developments began to encroach on the area.

Some residential expansion occurred after the opening of the railway line from Maitland to Wauchope in 1914. Significant growth did not occur until the post-war years, especially from the 1960s when the tourism industry boomed. It is from this point onwards that the local land use began to switch in some areas to being highly urbanised, with large numbers of housing being built along the coast.  To cope with the population increase, roads, water services and other structures have had to be constructed.  As a result there have been substantial changes to these parts of the local council area.  Some of these will be described in more detail later.

Having said this over 90% of the local area is zoned either as parkland or for agricultural use.