Laurieton, New South Wales

Laurieton is a coastal town on the Mid North Coast of the Australian state of New South Wales. Laurieton is the largest town in the Camden Haven district. Laurieton is 365 km north of Sydney and 42 km south of Port Macquarie. It lies between the base of North Brother Mountain and the Camden Haven River. At the, it had a population of 1,931.The largest school in the district, Camden Haven High School, is located approximately 5 km away from Laurieton's shopping and business centre.HistoryLong before European settlement the Laurieton area was home to the Birpai people.Captain James Cook named "the Brothers" on 12 May 1770 for their resemblance to mountains in his native Yorkshire. He was unwittingly mirroring the name given to them by the Birpai. The Camden Haven area was explored on foot by John Oxley in 1818 and was first settled by Europeans in the early 1820s. A convict settlement was established at nearby Port Macquarie in 1821 and the first settlers were limeburners burning oyster shells for buildings there. Some of these lived at the foot of North Brother. There was also a small garrison of soldiers to catch escaping convicts. In 1827 the area was surveyed by Armstrong and Guilding as part of an assessment for the Australian Agricultural Company.