Rum, Wool & Rebellion — The Hawkesbury Sunday
Windsor's Sunday market in the colony's old river port, the wharf where the rum ran and the rebellion brewed, and a long Richmond brunch — every single week.
An hour from the Harbour Bridge and two hundred years from it: Windsor and Richmond are two of Governor Macquarie's five towns of 1810, and every Sunday Windsor Mall fills with market stalls in the middle of all that history. Do the market slowly — the mall's shops, bakeries and cafés are half the sport, so graze as you go. Then wander down through Thompson Square to the old wharf, and finish with a late brunch among Richmond's verandahs. No date to save — this one runs every Sunday. The perfect first Market Crawl for anyone west of Parramatta.
1
Windsor Mall Sunday Market
Suggested: 9:00 – 11:00 AM · runs to 3 PM
Every Sunday, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Windsor Mall, Windsor NSW
Crawler's tip: Stalls the length of the mall every single Sunday — one of the Hawkesbury's longest-running traditions. This is a grazing market: the mall's own shops, bakeries and cafés run right alongside the stalls, so eat your way up one side and shop your way back down the other. Come hungry, leave laden.
🚗 2 min on foot from the mall
2
Thompson Square, the wharf & the river — Rum, Wool & Rebellion
Suggested: 11:00 – 11:50 AM
Thompson Square, Bridge Street, Windsor NSW 2756
Crawler's tip: Australia's oldest surviving public square tips down to one of the country's oldest inland port precincts — the wharf where the colony's rum, wool and grain changed hands, and the hub the old town was built around. The Rum Rebellion years played out with this square watching — Governor Bligh, of Mutiny on the Bounty legend, upturned a second time, with the Hawkesbury's settlers among the few who stood by him. And the community fought again in our own time, when the new crossing that replaced the brilliantly engineered 1874 bridge — built on pneumatic caissons of Australian-smelted iron that stood 145 years of floods — nearly took the precinct with it. A span of the old bridge survives as a viewing platform: stand on it, look at the water, and you're standing where the whole story starts. Rum, wool and rebellion.
🚗 ≈ 10 min drive between the twin towns
3
Richmond — the second Macquarie town
Suggested: 12:15 PM – whenever
Windsor Street & East Market Street, Richmond NSW 2753
Crawler's tip: Ten minutes up the road, Richmond does verandahs, galleries and long brunches like it invented them. If it's a Saturday you're reading this, flip it around — Richmond's own Good Food Market runs Saturday mornings in Richmond Park.
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Every market. Every weekend. One Market Crawl.
Photos from the road? Share them in the Market Crawl Mid North Coast group.
All Hawkesbury Nepean markets More crawls
Photos from the road? Share them in the Market Crawl Mid North Coast group.
All Hawkesbury Nepean markets More crawls