009 - Hunter Valley Manuscript - July 1833

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Description(009.jpg) Recto 2 At about a distance of three miles from Maitland is the St Michael, originally a store ship for the supply of the settlers but within the last three years four extensive stores have been formed besides a number of shops. The St Michael is now the starting port for our Steamers of which there are two now plying once a week between it and Sydney. The usual time occupied in the voyage is about 12 hours - This steam navigation which is exclusively enjoyed by the Hunter forms a most prominent feature in the advantages to be Derived from a location on that River - The facilities it affords for speedy communication with the Capital with the ready means it offers of transmitting both large and small produce at little risk to the great [part] of the country will of themselves alone point out the Hunter as the most eligible district for a new settler. Steam boats are expected shortly to come up the river as high as Maitland, but hitherto this course has not been adopted in consequence of the river between the St Michael and Maitland which in a direct line is only 3 miles taking a meandering route thro a course of 26 miles, but the while distance is not only navigable but deep and capable of floating ships of large burden - Another probability exists that vessels will reach Maitland shortly by a nearer cut, for nature has made a canal more than half the distance in the shape of a lagoon which bears the appearance of having been originally the bed of the river, and a little labor well applied might turn one of the tributary streams of the Hunter in this direction, so as to make a navigable canal without a single lock- The tide flows as high as Maitland a distance of about 30 miles from the mouth of the River so that the fall of the river in that distance cannot be much more than fifty feet the main channel of the River thro out is very deep varying from three to seven fathoms; the only impediments to its course are a few trees thrown into it by some of the settlers on the banks who have rather consulted their [oure] convenience in thus getting rid of an encumbrance, than the necessity of sacrificing a little labor for the public good- SubjectNew South Wales historyMaitland floodsNSWHunter ValleySettlerAustralian historyMaitlandAustraliaDatenot specifiedSourcehttps://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/2666320374/

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