The Prospect Hill area has state significance due to its unique combination of significant landscape feature, potential archaeological site, and association with important historical phases. As a dolerite outcrop rising to a height of 117 metres above sea level, Prospect Hill is a rare geological and significant topographic feature providing expansive views across the Cumberland Plain (Ashton, 2000).

The site is significant as a major reference point for early explorers from 1788, and as the site of a number of the earliest farms in New South Wales, which were established in 1791 (Higginbotham, 2000). Prospect Hill is also associated with Aboriginal frontier warfare during the early days of the colony, and as the site of one of the first Aboriginal/ European reconciliation meetings held in 1805 involving Samuel Marsden and Prospect Aboriginal groups (Flynn 1997).

Through its ongoing pastoral and rural use, the site has the potential to provide archaeological evidence of early farming practice and settlement (Higginbotham 2000). The landscape of Prospect Hill is likely to be one of the only remaining areas of rural land within the local and regional area that has retained its long-term pastoral use since the earliest days of the colony.

Source:

NSW Heritage Branch

Location:

Great Western Highway, Prospect, NSW

Longitude:

150.899603615

Latitude:

-33.7809550604