Moving in a Macquarie town: what Windsor and Richmond’s heritage streets ask of a move

Hawkesbury Removals · 26 June 2026 · 5 min read

The Hawkesbury isn’t just rural — it’s old. After the floods of 1809, Governor Lachlan Macquarie laid out five towns on the high ground above the river in 1810: Windsor, Richmond, Pitt Town, Wilberforce and Castlereagh. Four of them sit in the area we move every week, and they’re among the oldest European settlement towns in the country. That history is lovely to live in — and it quietly shapes how a move through these streets has to be planned.

A town-centre move is about the street, not the gate

Out on the acreage, the move is decided at the gate. In the heart of Windsor or Richmond, it’s decided at the street. The old surveyed grids — George Street, The Terrace and Thompson Square in Windsor; Windsor Street and East Market Street in Richmond — are narrow, with tight kerbs and verandahed shopfronts that leave little room for a large truck to simply sit out the front. So the planning shifts to position and timing: where the truck stands, how the carry runs, and working outside the busiest part of the day where we can.

Heritage homes, period details

The homes match the streets. Georgian and Victorian cottages and terraces come with steep original stairs, narrow hallways and doorways built for narrower furniture than we own today. None of that is a problem — it’s our normal day — but it does mean a wardrobe or a lounge sometimes comes out a different way than you’d expect, occasionally via a window or after a quick dismantle. The trick is knowing that before move day, which is why a photo of anything big and awkward makes your quote sharper.

The river still runs the timetable

There’s one more piece of Macquarie’s geography that shows up on move day: the crossings. The towns were built high because the flats flood, and even now the river is crossed in only a couple of places. The Richmond–North Richmond bridge is single-lane each way and carries tens of thousands of vehicles a day, and the only road approach to the Windsor Bridge runs through Wilberforce. For a cross-river move, we factor the crossing into the timing so the loaded truck isn’t sitting in a bridge queue.

Same valley, different moves

It’s why we treat each town as its own job. A move in central Windsor and a move up at Kurrajong share a postcode region and almost nothing else about the day. Pick your town on our river-towns pages for the local detail, or just get a quote and tell us the two addresses — we’ll read both ends before we quote.

Common questions

Which Hawkesbury towns are Macquarie towns?

Governor Macquarie proclaimed five towns in 1810: Windsor, Richmond, Pitt Town, Wilberforce and Castlereagh. Four of them — Windsor, Richmond, Pitt Town and Wilberforce — are in the area we cover.

Are heritage homes harder to move out of?

Not harder, just different. Original stairs, narrow halls and period doorways need the right approach and sometimes a dismantle or a hoist. It’s a normal day for us — send a photo of anything large and we’ll tell you how we’d handle it.

Does the Richmond bridge affect my move?

For a move across the river, yes — the Richmond–North Richmond crossing is single-lane each way and busy, so we time the loaded runs around the peaks. For a move within one town it’s a non-issue.