Architecture has long been a passion of mine to observe and photograph. Maitland was once the principal town of the Hunter Valley and consequently it has many historic buildings of considerable quality. Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson of the NSW Corps explored the Hunter in 1801 and named the site of the future town Schanck's Forest Plains. Cedar-getters soon followed, calling it 'The Camp'. Permanent European settlement commenced when Governor Macquarie opened the Lower Hunter up in the years 1818 to 1821. Eleven emancipated convicts were granted small plots of land as a reward for good behaviour and free settlers began to move in to what was renamed 'Wallis Plains' after the commandant of Newcastle. The locals called the settlement Morgan's Plains after one of the earliest and best known of the convict settlers - Molly Morgan. In 1814, she was sentenced to a further seven years for the theft of some government cows and was sent to the harsh penal settlement for re-offenders at Newcastle. However, then in her fifties, she became the mistress of an official and around 1819, received 159 acres at Wallis Plains, that land constituting what is now the business district of Maitland. Development was fostered by a bridge over Wallis Creek in 1827 and a road from Windsor in 1831. A government town had been planned by 1829 and substantial administrative buildings were erected.
The government town was proclaimed as Maitland in 1833. When the other settlement became known as West Maitland in 1834 confusion arose. As a result the boundaries were clarified and the names East Maitland and West Maitland were adopted in 1835. The combined population the following year was 1163. The three neighbouring villages became an important focus of the river trade with a regular river steamer service operating along the Lower Hunter to Newcastle. Caroline Chisholm founded one of her Female Emigrants' Homes at East Maitland in 1842. The Maitland Mercury was established in 1843, making it one of the oldest surviving Australian newspapers. Declared municipalities in 1862-63 East and West Maitland, along with Morpeth, were merged as the City of Maitland in 1944. The postwar years saw an influx of migrants, particularly Poles, bringing new traditions and skills to the local community.