Port Macquarie was established in 1821 after John Oxley in October 1818 followed the Hastings River from the mountains and came across this idyllic port which he proclaimed to be a “paradise of great significance and potential”.
Port Macquarie was initially used as a place of secondary punishment, to receive convicts who had transgressed the law a second time after transportation to the Colony. Port's convict population peaked in 1825, but was then progressively run down until 1830 when the Hastings Valley was opened up to free settlement.
Lake Innes Ruines
Lake Innes house was built by Major Archibald Clunes Innes using convict labour, in several stages between 1831 and 1843.
The property was originally 2560 acres (1036 hectares) and Innes was convinced that Port Macquarie would become the main gateway to the coastal area around the Hastings River and to nearby New England. The extensive complex was an ambitious creation by one of the most influential of the early European settlers in the area.
The Depression of the 1840s brought him to near insolvency and the closure of Port Macquarie as a penal settlement deprived him of convict labour.
Following Innes' departure the house was occupied by a number of people, but was derelict by the beginning of the 1900s and subsequently deteriorated to its present state as a result of natural decay, vandalism and theft of building materials.
The ruins are classified by the National Trust of Australia (NSW).
Unfortunately access to the ruins is restricted to guided tours organised by NSW Parks, so the cache could not be placed at the actual ruins which would have been ideal. Instead the location chosen for the cache, which still has some relevance to the story, is at the start of the track that takes you to the ruins.