 The first of the town's settlers arrived on the "William Bryan", which anchored off the coast on 31 March 1841.In steerage were 21 married couples, 22 single adults and 70 children.George Cutfield, the head of the expedition, wrote a letter home, describing the settlement as "a fine country with a large quantity of flat land, but every part is covered with vegetation, fern, scrub and forest.