Exploring the Hawkesbury-Nepean River small group tour

Exploring the Hawkesbury-Nepean River small group tour

Discover the small town charm, and delve into the deep and incredibly ancient Indigenous history of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River. Along our tour we will visit historic towns of the Hawkesbury valley, such as Windsor and Richmond, with highlights including a paddle-wheel cruise, and visit to the Blue Mountains National Park. Our tour also highlights the Indigenous Australian history so intricately woven into the Hawkesbury region's history, visiting several sites of Indigenous importance and learning more about the land, and its story.

This, like all Odyssey Traveller small group tours is limited to 15 people.

This Odyssey Traveller small group tour is designed for mature and senior travellers, in couples or travelling solo, who want an in-depth and informed experience of their travel destination in New South Wales. Since 1983, Odyssey has specialised in bringing Australian travellers to see the world: now, our goal is to let you rediscover your own country.

Our Hawkesbury Sydney tour lasts for one week, departing from Sydney in the morning before arriving at the charming historic town of Windsor. During our time in Windsor, we will visit a number of local destinations such as the St Matthews, and Ebenezer Churches, the latter of which is the oldest church in Australia. Other local highlights include Wisemans Ferry, Tizzana Winery, the regional gallery, as well as the Windsor craft market. Along the way we will also take a short walk showing the convict road building remnants, which date back to the Hawkesbury region's colonial days. Another of the Hawkesbury's historic towns we visit along our tour is Richmond. Located just to the west of Windsor, Richmond has a trove of historic homes and churches we will visit along our tour, as well as the town's cemetery, where many of the Hawkesbury's famous residents are buried. Our tour also stops in at a hidden local gem for lunch, before heading up to the Streeton lookout, from which you can view the river, the RAAF base, and surrounds from a higher perspective. We also visit the Purple Noon gallery during our tour of Richmond, which features an avant-garde collection from local artists.

Exploring Indigenous history is also a fascinating addition to our journey, with the region's Aboriginal people sharing in a history that stretches back over 47,000 years, among the most ancient in all of Australia. In line with this, Indigenous history will be a continual theme throughout our journey, with parts of our tour serving as an educational journey, as well as a view into how this beautiful landscape would've looked like prior to European settlement. During our trip to Mt. Tomah and the Blue Mountains National Park, we venture to an incredibly important archaeological site known as Lapstone Creek Rock Shelter, known by locals as 'Emu Cave'. Emu cave was an excavation site during the 1930s and 40s, with discoveries ranging from stone axe heads, to quartz tools, and other small backed tools. The finds within mark one of the first places of thorough European Australian engagement with Aboriginal archaeology and deep history. Prior to this, the common conception had dismissed ancient Aboriginal history as that of a simple unchanging stone age people, an attitude illustrative of the era's racially charged attitudes.

This deep history the Aboriginal people have with the land runs back some 120,000 years. For the Hawkesbury valley the deep history is illustrated by archaeological finds which place Indigenous habitation at a date as early as 47,000 years ago. What prompted this incredible story was the discovery of an ancient stone chopping tool, dated at the time to between 26,000 -32,000 years old, one of the oldest artefacts found on the east coast. The stone itself resembles a medium size rock, with three large scalloped indentations missing from its side, a pattern evident of human use. It was found in the 1970s by archaeologist Father Eugene Stockton, and prompted a heated discussion in light of the site's excavation and development. Just a decade earlier in the 1960s, Australian archaeology had begun to pick up in earnest, with estimates commonly dating Aboriginal settlement in Australia back 15,000-20,000 years ago, with sites such as Emu Cave being instrumental in provoking this exploration. However, as more discoveries were made, and dating methods beyond radiocarbon became more widespread, the timeline of Aboriginal habitation was found to be even more ancient than previously thought. During the 1980s, the Hawkesbury stone caused yet another breakthrough, with more accurate and modern dating techniques placing the stone at an unprecedented age of 47,000 years, sparking headlines such as 'The Oldest known site of Modern Man'. As further finds along the river basin were unearthed, archaeologists have come to agree that the Hawkesbury-Nepean region is one of the oldest sites of Aboriginal habitation in Australia, with the area even likely to be part of the initial colonisation wave.

For all the articles Odyssey Traveller has published for mature aged and senior travellers, click through on this link.

Articles about Australia published by Odyssey Traveller:

• Aboriginal Art
• Ancient Aboriginal Trade Routes
• Madjedbebe Archaeological Site
• Mungo Man and Mungo Lady
• The Australian Outback: A Definitive Guide
• Sydney and the Rocks District

For all the articles Odyssey Traveller has published for mature aged and senior travellers, click through on this link.

For an amazing history of the Hawkesbury, Odyssey highly recommends Grace Karsken’s ‘People of the River’ (2020), which has been a great source of inspiration for our material.