What do you know about Camden Haven?

Camden Haven includes the towns of Kendall, Kew, Laurieton, North Haven and Dunbogan, as well as several villages … Culturally significant indigenous sites confirm the presence of Aboriginal people in this area some thousands of years before European settlement.

A British discovery?

On 12 May 1770, Captain James Cook sailed past and named the local mountains ‘The Three Brothers’. This name curiously reflected the stories of the local peoples. The Aboriginal people have lived in this area for more than 9000 years, and the local area is administered on their behalf by the Bunyah Land Council.

Another explorer seeking discovery

The Camden Haven was later explored by John Oxley in October 1818. The area was settled by Europeans in the 1820s, the first settlers being soldiers guarding the southern exit to the Port Macquarie Penal Settlement.

How places got their names

The town originally called ‘Camden Haven’, about 12 km from the coast, was later renamed ‘Kendall’ in honour of the poet Henry Kendall, who live there for some years. Downstream on the Camden Haven River from Kendall is Kew, which derived its name from the owner of the Stage Coach Station, Patrick Keough.

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Village of Laurieton

Continuing east, the next township is Laurieton (originally ‘Village of Camden Haven’), and then North Haven and Dunbogan, on the northern and southern sides of the Camden Haven Inlet.

Image: Dunbogan Boatshed on the Southern side of the inlet remains a popular tourist drawcard today.

Plenty of riches

The Camden Haven became a thriving community by the late 1800s, based mainly on the area's fishing and timber resources. By 1900, the area was marketing timber, seafoods and farm produce to the Port Macquarie-Hastings region and beyond, as far as Sydney and other towns on the east coast. The area now supports a strong tourism industry based on its natural scenery and national parks.

A very attractive place

Laurieton is scenically located at the base of North Brother Mountain – Dooragan – near the mouth of the Camden Haven Inlet in a setting which combines coastal lakes, lagoons and waterways with bushland and some unique views of the Mid-North coastline.

The pioneers remembered

Joseph Laurie JP (1832–1904) had timber interests in the Laurieton area in partnership with his brothers Andrew and Alexander. He moved to the area from Taree in 1872 and established a timber mill by the river at Laurieton. He opened the first Laurieton Post Office at his property in Laurie Street on 1 Oct 1875, and he later marketed the local timber in England and Europe