European arrival

The area's first free European settlers, the Archer brothers, moved to the area from New South Wales in September 1841. The brothers took up 'Durundur Station', comprising the entire Woodford district, on the banks of the Stanley River. This was the northernmost settlement in what was then the Colony of New South Wales. The Archers and their employees lived off the land until they could grow crops such as potatoes, melons, pumpkins, and cabbages.