PUBLISHED:

The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) 16 Aug 2009

ACCOMPANYING IMAGES

Accompanying images were taken by Sandra Burn White, a freelance photographer whose work forms an essential backdrop to John Rozentals' travel stories. She has also built an extensive album of images which are available for purchase and can be perused on her site: www.sandraburnwhite.com.au

Passage to wild colonial days

The Hawkesbury has rich links to our nations pioneers, writes John Rozentals

FOR many people, the Hawkesbury is just a river — albeit quite a magnificent one — that they cross as they drive along the freeway between Sydney and Newcastle.

For some, it’s also a district that provides a connection to our colonial past as they travel west towards the Blue Mountains through Macquarie-built towns such as Windsor and Richmond.

But the Hawkesbury district is worth much more than a glimpse and offers a rich tapestry of touring opportunities.

At least a couple of those can be reached by leaving the main thoroughfare at Windsor and taking the Sackville Road north towards Wisemans Ferry.

The first is the Ebenezer Church, just a stone’s throw, or maybe a well-hit fairway wood, from one of the Hawkesbury’s most popular water-skiing reaches.

The church, built in 1809 mostly by god-fearing Scottish folk who had migrated to Australia a few years earlier on board the Coromandel, has comfortably withstood the ravages of time to become the oldest still standing in the country.

It was the first non-conformist church built in the new colony and the adjacent schoolhouse was one of the earliest cogs in our education system.

Both buildings are open to the public and there are quite satisfying devonshire teas, plus a wealth of historical material, available in the latter.

The cemetery surrounding the church abounds with graves bearing the names of the pioneering families who settled the district — among them the Meins, the Stubbs, the Johnstons, the Gronos ... and the Turnbulls.

One of the Coromandel’s passengers, John Turnbull, was apparently so incensed by the deposition of Governor William Bligh during the Rum Rebellion that he named one of his sons William Bligh Turnbull.

It’s a tradition that has continued right down to John’s great-great-great-grandson, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, today’s Federal Opposition Leader.

A bit further north of Ebenezer is the Tizzana winery and vineyard, established in the late 1880s by one of Australia’s most famous medicos, the Italian-born Thomas Fiaschi, who served with great distinction as a senior surgeon during the Great War and is remembered by the distinctive Florentine Porcellino monument outside Sydney Hospital in Macquarie Street.

Fiaschi was a keen and highly regarded viticulturist and the old Tizzana winery is an equally eloquent monument to his passion and verve. It abounds with historic winemaking relics, and there are plenty of good wines to try.

Well worth an hour or so before boarding the (free) Sackville Car Ferry and heading back to Windsor along the other bank of the Hawkesbury.

Tizzana also offers the option of booking into five-star B&B accommodation. Phone 02 4579 1150 or visit www.tizzana.com.au.