Looking for information on pioneers of the Gosford District?

Gosford Library has information on historical population growth, local resident names drawn from early census and directory listings, and indexes to local cemetery, funeral and coroner's records.

Commercial directory listings

UBD Guide - 1958

Greville's Post Office Directory - 1872

Moore's Australian Almanac - 1940

NSW Post Office Directory - 1911

Population growth

1788 - The true extent of the Aboriginal population in the Brisbane Water District is unknown, however it is estimated that several hundred people lived in the area before white settlement.

1823 - James Webb, the first white settler of Brisbane Water, takes up land at The Rip.

1828 - The Census of 1828 records approximately 100 persons in the Brisbane Water Police District, which included Lake Macquarie, Brisbane Water and Lower Portland Head.

This figure did not record the number of Aboriginal persons. However, a census of Aboriginal people in Brisbane Water taken in the same year records 65 persons between the Hawkesbury River and Wyong. This figure is increasingly believed to underestimate severely the native population, which may have numbered several hundred.