Appin, New South Wales

Appin is a town in New South Wales, Australia in Wollondilly Shire. It is situated about 16 kilometres south of Campbelltown and 35 kilometres north west of Wollongong. In 2006, there were 1,423 people living in Appin. The fifth village settled in Australia, it is now on the fringe of the Sydney urban area.
The town was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1811 after a small village on the coast of Scotland where his wife was born. One of the first settlers was John Hume, whose son Hamilton Hume became a famous Australian explorer. Hamilton Hume explored the local area and was given a grant of 300 acres of land at Appin as a reward. When he made his famous journey to Victoria with William Hovell in 1824, they started the journey from Appin.
Appin is the birthplace of John Fuller (1830-1865), the Australian bushranger also known as Dan Morgan.
Cataract Gorge is about 10 km south east of Appin. It is now has a dam built in 1906 which is the oldest dam in the Sydney water supply system. On 17 April 1816, the British army killed many Aboriginal men, women and children, of the Dharawal Nation at the gorge. They had been fighting the European settlers who were moving into the area.
The Roman Catholic church at Appin, St. Bede's, was built from 1837-1843. The design was by Father John Therry (1790-1864), who became Australia's first Catholic priest in 1820. St. Bede's is the oldest Catholic church still in continuous use. It was named after St. Bede, the founder of the Benedictines.