Establishing a settlement

A number of squatters moved onto the land along the Darling and Murray rivers, expanding their holdings west from the Murrumbidgee area and north-east from South Australia. With the arrival of paddleboats in 1853, the small settlement port of Wentworth found itself ideally situated as an administrative and commercial centre for the untapped wealth of the vast outback. For many years Sydney was the only port in New South Wales to handle more cargo than Wentworth.