Paterson


Paterson is a tiny but attractive little hamlet settled amidst mountains on the Paterson River which has its source in Barrington Tops to the north. The main road and train line twist through this village.

Where is it?: Hunter Valley. Paterson is 18 km north of Maitland; 32 km south of Dungog; 175 km north of Sydney.

Events: During March Paterson holds an annual festival at Tucker Park, with market stalls and local produce. The nearby Tocal Agricultural College holds a small farms Field Days on the first weekend in May, showcasing the college and local agricultural interests.

Things to see and do
There is an active historical society that maintains sites of historical importance in the area. The society has a museum collection in the Paterson Court House that is open once a week. The area is also serviced by Paterson Public School, and the local newsletter The Paterson "Psst".

A good way to see Paterson is to obtain a walking tour pamphlet and map from the Paterson Country Cafe in King St, opposite the Court House Hotel. Of the town's historic buildings, St Ann's Presbyterian Church is of particular interest. Many early settlers in the area were Scots and St Ann's, built in the late 1830s, is said to be the oldest Presbyterian Church on mainland Australia. As a sign of the Scottish highland presence and of altered folk traditions, the church's first teacher had to be skilled in Gaelic grammar.

Over the road is the Paterson Courthouse Museum in King St, open on Sundays. It traces the European history of Paterson and has exhibits relating to poet Dorothea Mackellar, who spent her teenage years on a nearby property, and bushranger Fred Ward aka Captain Thunderbolt whose wife Mary Ann Ward was tried here in the 1860s. The building is situated on a slight rise overlooking the river.


Paterson Corn Staddle: located in Tucker Park is a rare corn staddle, built to store cobs of corn until they were ready to be milled for the horses. The staddle is an icon within the park and the village, and is one of the rarest buildings of its kind in Australia.


Rail Motor Society: based at Paterson, the Society's museum housed in the old station master's residence contains, amongst other things, an excellent history and technical appraisal of the CPH Railmotor. The Society operates specialised rail tours and weekend excursions on the second Saturday of every month.

Surrounding area
Tocal Homestead: an impressive two-storey Regency mansion set among large fig trees and overlooking the Paterson River. Some of the outbuildings date back to the 1820s. The barn, called 'one of the finest timber barns in Australia', was designed by noted architect Edmund Blacket c.1850. The agricultural complex's field day is held on the weekend of the first Sunday in May. The homestead can usually be inspected at this time and on a small number of other days in the year.

Maitland: the commercial centre of the Hunter Valley, set on the Hunter River and surrounded by fertile plains. Of the major towns of the Hunter Valley, Maitland retains many historic buildings that date back to the earliest years of colonial Australia.




Stroud: a small country town, dating back to the late 1820s. Many of Stroud's old buildings have been preserved and the whole town is under National Trust classification. The oldest are convict-built. As a company town which was planned rather than developed piecemeal it had, and retains, some unity of focus and character.

Clarence Town: a small, pleasant, sprawling and tranquil township picturesquely situated by the banks of the Williams River, 50 km north of Newcastle. Until the railway arrived in 1911, it was a busy and important river port and effectively the gateway to northern New South Wales. Bypassed, and with its importance as a centre of exchange vanished, it is now a quiet rural town.

Morpeth: a major river port until the 1890s, the town's comparative isolation has meant that its historic shopfronts, wharves and even the hitching posts along the main street have survived intact. Today, Morpeth is a living museum of Australia's past, National Trust-classified and no longer a backwater but a wide-awake town crammed with cafes, craft shops and an annual events calendar.


Barrington Tops: carved out of an ancient volcano, Barrington Tops rises from near sea level to over 1500m. In the lower valleys, there are World Heritage-listed subtropical rainforests. Up on the plateau, the sub-alpine woodland regularly sees snow in winter. Most of the area is declared wilderness, and it's a well-known destination for bushwalkers, however the park is accessible even to those with limited mobility.

Dungog: a pleasant country town on the Williams River, located in the middle of dairy and timber country. Dungog is rich in natural assets. including mountain ranges, freshwater streams, clean air and magnificent rural vistas. Popular Dungog events are the Dungog Film Festival hosted at the James Theatre, the Dungog Agricultural Show, Pedalfest, the Dungog Rodeo, and the Thunderbolt Rally. Dungong marks the entrance to Barrington Tops.

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