John Macarthur, arriving back in Sydney in…
1805 CE
This is prime grazing land, well supplied by water from the Nepean river, and reserved by the Governor exclusively for the colony's cattle herds.
Both Governors King and Bligh strongly object to this and want the grant moved, but the Colonial Office writes back affirming Macarthur's right to the land.
Macarthur names it Camden Park after his patron.
Bligh also turns down Macarthur's request for the remaining five thousand acres (twenty square kilometers) after he begins exporting wool to England.
Bligh is firmly opposed to Macarthur's venture, according to Evatt, not because he objects to the fine wool industry, but because he believes that 'first preference should be given to agriculture'.
As reported much later by Macarthur, Bligh said to him in a conversation at Government House; "What have I to do with your sheep, sir? What have I to do with your cattle. Are you to have such flocks of sheep and such herds of cattle as no man ever heard of before? No, sir!"