Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History



Free Settler or Felon

Free Settler or Felon is an on-going project gathering details of the lives of people who resided in the Hunter Valley, Newcastle and Central Coast in the early days of settlement.

Use the Search box on the right to access information about Hunter Valley Convicts, Settlers, Soldiers and Townsfolk.

Follow the Links below to find out more about Convict Ships, Medical Practitioners, Convict Ship Surgeons, Inns and Hotels, Bushrangers, Priests and Pastors, Hunter Valley Placenames, Australian Slang and more


Convict Ships to Australia

Convict Ships - Alphabetical list of Convict Ships arriving in New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Western Australia and Van Diemens Land between the years 1788 and 1862

Convict Ship Surgeons

Convict Ship Surgeons - Surgeons who were employed on convict ships to Australia in the years 1788 - 1862


Convict Ships By Year

Convict Ships by Year - Arrival of Convict Ships by Year

Free Settler and Immigrant Ships

Free Settler Ships - Free Settler and Immigrant Ships arriving 1821 - 1842

The First Fleet

The First Fleet - The First Fleet brought the first convict ships to Australia in 1788 in a voyage that took over eight months to complete

Early Settlers Introduction

Hunter Valley Settlers - Introduction to Early Settlers Index

Hunter Valley Settlers

Hunter Valley Settlers - Index to Settlers who took up land in the early days of the colony

Hunter Valley Bushranger Index

Bushrangers Index - Early bushrangers in the Hunter Valley were mostly men desperate to escape Newcastle penal settlement where they had been sent for colonial indiscretions. Later when the Penal Settlement closed and the Valley was opened for settlement the bushrangers were mostly convicts who escaped from estates and farms or from road gangs

Hunter Valley Inns and Hotels Index

Inns & Hotels - Newcastle and Hunter Valley Inns and Hotels Index and Publicans Index

Hunter River Steamers

Hunter River Steamers - Including the Sophie Jane and other famous steamers that plied between Sydney and Newcastle after 1831

Hunter Valley Medical Practitioners

Medical Practitioners Index of some of the men and women who worked as medical practitioners in the Hunter Valley prior to 1900

Horse Patrols and the Mounted Police in the Hunter Valley

Mounted Police - Horse patrols were the forerunners of the Mounted Police. They were established in the Hunter Valley and at Bathurst when Sir Thomas Brisbane was Governor in response to Bushrangers who terrorised the districts in 1825

Military Officers

Military Officers - Notes about some of the Officers who served or settled in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley in the first half of the 19th Century

Law and Order in the Hunter Valley

Law and Order - A list of men who served as Magistrates, Chief Constables and Constables in Newcastle, Hunter Valley and Brisbane Water

Scourgers in New South Wales

Scourgers - Names of some of the Scourgers employed in New South Wales in the convict years


Hunter Valley Place Names

Placenames - Notes on the Origins and Locations of Place Names in Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley region

Female Convicts

Female Convicts - Over fifty-two years from 1788 to 1840 when transportation of convicts came to an end, more than 12,000 women were transported to New South Wales. A woman transported on the Charlotte in 1788 could potentially have been great grandmother to one of the last sent on the Surry in 1840

Convict Names

Convict Names - Unusual male and female convict names

Convict History

Convict History - Including The Battle of Castle Hill, Famous and Infamous Convicts, Pirates, Cockatoo Island

Convict Coal Miners at Newcastle

Convict Coal Miners - Convicts sent to Newcastle to work in the coal mines in the first years of the settlement

Newcastle History

Newcastle History - including Reminiscences, George Caley, Harbour Pilots, The First Anzac Day, Discovery and Early Settlement and Convicts

Maitland History

Maitland History - People and Places 1820s - 1850s. Heritage locations in the Maitland region

Lake Macquarie Links

Lake Macquarie - Links

Hunter Valley History

Hunter Valley History - Explorer Allan Cunningham, Diary of George Wyndham, Memoirs of Ellen Bundock, Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell

Colonial History

Colonial History - Australian Slang, Cabbage Tree Hats, Military Officers, Maritime Explorers, Moreton Bay

Obituaries

Obituaries of Newcastle and Hunter Valley folk before 1900