Map of Part of New South Wales

Rare map of New South Wales from Newcastle (Port Hunter)  to Jervis Bay showing the extent of colonisation up to Throsby 1825. 

The inset view looking west across present day Circular Quay, inlcudes the hexagonal stone cottage named after Billy Blue, ‘an imposing Jamaican-born ex-convict and ferryman whom Governor Macquarie appointed constable and harbour master’.

The route of Throsby’s south of Sydney are shown.

Thorsby was one of the first settlers in the Illawarra district, where in November 1816 his stockmen already had a hut, and he was also one of the first to settle in the Moss Vale district. In August 1817 he explored the country west of Sutton Forest with Hamilton Hume, a family friend. In March and April 1818 he accompanied Surveyor-General James Meehan on a journey from the Cowpastures through Moss Vale to Bundanoon Creek and south-east to Jervis Bay; after the party divided Throsby reached the Shoalhaven River and Jervis Bay.

In April 1819 he made a tour from the Cowpastures to Bathurst, opening up fertile country which Macquarie felt would meet the increase of settlers for many years; for this he granted Throsby 1000 acres, and also rewarded his companions and servants. In 1819 Throsby discovered a pass between the Illawarra and Robertson districts and successfully drove a herd of cattle through it. In March 1820 he explored the country around Goulburn and Lake Bathurst and penetrated as far as the Breadalbane Plains. Macquarie gave him superintendence over the building of the road from the Cowpastures to the new country, which was placed under the direction of Throsby’s servant Joseph Wild. In 1820 Macquarie visited the work party, which had reached the Cookbundoon Range, and gave Throsby’s estate in the new country the name of Throsby Park.