Discovery of the Goulburn Plains

Expeditions took place in 1798 to see what lay on the other side of the Southern Highlands, but the Goulburn Plains were not officially discovered until 1818, when an exploratory party led by Hamilton Hume and Surveyor James Meehan crossed the Plains. The region then developed quickly. The construction of a road from Picton to the Goulburn Plains was ordered in 1819. Settlers started to move into the area and the township of Goulburn Plains was born. Present day Goulburn was gazetted in 1833.