Wentworth Falls - Culture and History

In 1815 Governor Macquarie camped at The Weatherboard and bestowed upon the area some of its present European names, including Kings Tableland, the Jamison Valley (named after Macquarie's friend who lived on the banks of the Nepean River to the east), Pitt's Amphitheatre (after the British prime minister) and Prince Regent's Glen (after the Prince of Wales who became George IV in 1820). He also gave Wentworth Falls the name 'Campbell's Cataract' after his secretary.

In 1826 William Boyles built an inn called the Bathurst Traveller. However, the weight of the area's European name asserted itself and it became known as 'the Weatherboard Inn'. It turned out to be one of the major inns on the road through the mountains. The adventurer James Backhouse noted the structure in his memoirs after staying there in 1835: 'After travelling eighteen miles, we arrived at the Weather-board hut where we had intended to lodge; but the only good room was occupied. One in which we had an excellent meal of beef and bread, with tea, was without glass in the windows, and could not have the door shut, for the smoking of the wood fire.' In 1836 Charles Darwin also stopped briefly at the Inn. When the railway arrive in 1867 (it remained the terminus for the railway for nearly a year) the siding was called Weatherboard. It was in 1879 that it was changed to Wentworth Falls.