Picton, New South Wales

Picton is a small town in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire, on the south-western edge of Sydney. The town is located 80 kilometres south-west of Sydney, close to Camden and Campbelltown. It is also the administrative centre of Wollondilly Shire.HistoryPicton was first explored by Europeans in 1798 and remained beyond the limits of legal settlement until 1821. Following the discovery of good land in the interior and the settlement of Bong Bong and the Goulburn areas, Governor Macquarie authorised the building of the new Great South Road between Sydney and the Southern Highlands in 1819. This opened up the Picton area to settlers, including Henry Colden Antill, who established a 2000acre property in 1822.Picton developed when a new line of the Great South Road was cut over the Razorback Range from Camden, and especially after the railway arrived in 1863. Picton is the only town in the Southern Hemisphere where you can pass through it twice when travelling by train. It was established as Stonequarry in 1841 and was renamed Picton in 1845. It remained a stopping point on the Great South Road, later renamed the Hume Highway, until it was bypassed in December 1980.