Only five weeks after Governor Phillip and a party of officers established a settlement at Sydney Cove, they travelled north and made the first colonial observations of the area we now know as Gosford. Phillip was impressed by the dramatic natural landscape he encountered, writing that it was “rocky and . . . covered in timber; [with] large trees which grow on the summits of mountains.” Given that these observations were made over 200 years ago, it’s remarkable that they still hold true. The...