The Original 'Comleroy'
in the Hunter

Originally, Comleroy was a huge district west of Singleton in the Hunter Valley. Comleroy was the name given to this district by the early settlers in the 1820s.

This mighty Comleroy district originally stretched from Patricks Plains at Mount Thorley, covering the fertile plains on both sides of the Hunter River up to Denman (Merton) and then on up to Muswellbrook (St Helier's) on the edge of the Liverpool Ranges, covering an area of over 60,000 acres.

Comleroy Road in the Hawkesbury was so called because it originally led right through to this original Comleroy area in the Hunter.

Many early historical sources verify the use of the Comleroy name (with a variety of spellings) to refer to this area of the Hunter Valley:
Explorer's Log Book, 1819
Explorer, John Howe, led the party that discovered the Singleton district. In his explorer's journal on 4 November, 1819, Howe recorded that the Aboriginal name 'Coomery Roy' referred to the Hunter Valley plains. Read more
Australian Newspaper, 1827
In The Australian newspaper on 21st September, 1827, an article said that Cumneroy extends 'along the main river for twenty-five to thirty miles from the mouth of the Wollombi to the mouth of the Goulburn, and contains about fifty or sixty thousand acres of excellent land on both sides of the Hunter, including what is vulgarly called Jerry's Plains, and Big and Little Flat.' Read more
Hunter History to 1833
The book, Dawn in the Valley: The Story of Settlement in the Hunter Valley to 1833, devotes an entire chapter to the first coming of white men to the Coomery Roy area of the Hunter in 1819-1820.
Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1823-1824
In the Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1823-1824, there are a number of permits recorded for early settlers to pass cattle along Comleroy Road to farms in the Comeroy district in the Hunter Valley. Read more
Colonial Novel, 1845
Convict, James Tucker, wrote a novel called Ralph Rashleigh while serving a twelve month sentence at Port Macquarie in 1845. The novel's hero, convict Ralph Rashleigh, was captured by three desperate bushrangers who fled with Rashleigh into the valleys and swamps of Comnaroy to escape the pursuing police. Ref: James Tucker (1992) Collins Angus & Robertson, Pymble
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