[1] British colonisation of the vicinity began in May 1841 when Robert Whitehead, an English squatter, established a sheep station which he named Spring Creek.

[3] Conflict over the occupation of the land continued for the next couple of years with flocks of sheep being taken, shepherds speared and Aboriginal people shot.

[3] In 1842, Whitehead with two of his employees and several other settlers, shot dead four Aboriginal woman and a child in a gully in what became known as the Lubra Creek massacre.

Whitehead temporarily fled the colony to escape punishment but he soon returned and continued to hold the Spring Creek property (which he renamed Goodwood) until his death in 1879.

[4] The Goodwood property of 24,000 acres was subdivided to allow for closer settlement, which included the creation of the towns of Woolsthorpe and Hawkesdale.