James Webb

Only five weeks after the First Fleet sailed into Port Jackson, Arthur Phillip and a party of officers and men made a voyage of discovery to what is now known as Brisbane Water, in search of land suitable for growing crops for the early settlement. It is known that these early explorers landed on the Woy Woy Peninsula.

It was another thirty-five years before the first grant of land was made on the Peninsula - to James Webb. Webb was a soldier who arrived in Australia in 1790 on the 'Scarborough'. Webb's land grant was in the area of Blackwall/Orange Grove.

Webb later purchased two more parcels of land on the northern part of the Peninsula, and this area became known as Webb's Flat, but was also referred to as 'Wye Wye'. Part of this area later became the main centre of the Peninsula, and includes the modern town of Woy Woy.

For many years after settlement, Webb's Flat remained undeveloped. The area would have been exploited for its timber, mangrove and shell resources, but on early maps, not even one dwelling can be found. The Blackwall area grew slowly, due to the ship building industry carried on in that locality.

It was not until the coming of the railway in the late 1880s that the northern part of the Peninsula became a settled area. The town of Woy Woy grew from a cluster of dwellings and shops that remained after the railway workers left in the 1890s.