"A town of NSW, situated in the parish of Ham Common, hundred of Richmond, & county of Cumberland, on the banks of the Nepean [Hawkesbury] 39 miles from Sydney and contains a population of 746 inhabitants, viz. 399 males & 347 females and having within its boundaries 147 houses...The town is rapidly increasing, and contains many ornamental cottages. The church is a neat structure; there is a burial ground and school-house. From the western part of the town a road leads to what is called the highland, situated above the Yellow Munday's lagoon. These highlands are small allotments on the high grounds, which after the flood of 1824, were given to the holders of farms in the neighbourhood for the purpose of erecting houses above the reach of the waters. As the soil in the neighbourhood of this town is of the richest description the ground is judiciously divided into small farms, and there are therefore, many cross roads in various directions particularly one to the punt which connects the roads and the town with the road to Kurrajong and Mount Tomah, commonly called Bells road. Beautifully situated on this river to the westward of Richmond is Bellmont {sic} and to the right is seen an elevated spot of table land about 3 miles in extent, called Richmond Terrace."