Maitland on the Hunter

Maitland’s history began with the Aboriginal people of the area who lived their traditional ways for thousands of years, undisturbed until the arrival of Europeans in the early 1800s. The European invasion began in earnest in the 1820s and progressively alienated the Aboriginals from their land and culture.
The history of Maitland during the last two centuries is unique - from the convict timber cutters stripping red cedar out of its rainforests to adorn the colonial homes of the wealthy, through the brutal times of its early agriculture founded on convict labour and the lash, through the heartbreak of floods, to local boy Les Darcy, the first hero of the new nation, Australia.