What do you know about Camden Haven?

The Camden Haven is a diverse landscape of mountains, rivers, lakes and beaches, rich in both plant and animal life. It 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.

Starting from Port Macquarie

European settlers arrived here in the early 1820s, following the establishment in 1821 of a penal colony in Port Macquarie, some 40 km to the north. John Oxley passed through here in 1818 while returning to Sydney on his way back from a lengthy exploration of inland NSW.

Heading south-west to Kendall and Kew

​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.

Caption to go here about Keough

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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.

Timber and Tourism

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.

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.