Castle Hill  New South Wales

Castle Hill is at the heart of the Baulkham Hills Shire, one of the largest local government areas in NSW. Lying 32km north-west of the Sydney CBD, Baulkham Hills extends over 380sqkm and represents a diverse mix of bushland, farms, business precincts and up-market urban estates.

It stretches from Parramatta in the south to colourful Wiseman’s Ferry in the north. Settled by Solomon Wiseman in 1817, the small township on a peninsula formed by a bend in the Hawkesbury River was once a key staging post on the original main road north to the Newcastle coal fields. Wiseman’s grand, convict-built home, Cobham Hall, forms part of the quaint old Wiseman’s Ferry Hotel, while the police station, post office and St Mary Magdalene Church preserve links to the past.

Castle Hill is also the perfect base to explore heritage-rich Parramatta to the south. Once the alternative seat of government for the early governors of the infant colony, Parramatta bristles with founding icons.