on 1 March 1804 he continued the ban, stating that "no ground whatever ought to be granted or leased to individuals on the other side of the Nepean". It appears that a number of settlers occupied land on the Nepean from 1800, although no grants were issued there until 1805, and early accounts of this occupation suggest that most was on the north-eastern bank. Alan Atkinson (?) reports the river flats drew admiration from the Europeans who travelled through in 1795. They described "large ponds covered with ducks and the black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints". Governor Bligh, a naval man, particularly admired the second type of country in the district rising gradually from the river as "Hills and Dales, waving like the Sea, their Bases nearly uniting and rising as they advance towards the high Mountains" [of the Razorback range]. The Europeans thought the flats were perfect for cattle and the hills would carry sheep. They admired the absence of underbrush – probably achieved through Aboriginal land management practices (burning off) – and felt comfortable with a landscape that reminded them of an English gentleman's park. In spite of Governor Bligh's ruling that no further grants should be made at Cowpastures, small settlers made their homes on the Sydney side of the Nepean from about 1810. This move was part of a large push to extend the settlement southwards after floods and over-cultivation had blighted the Hawkesbury farming area. The New South Wales Corps deposed Governor Bligh on 26 January 1808 and during the interregnum, which lasted until Lachlan Macquarie replaced Bligh as Governor in January 1810, members of the Corps served as lieutenant governors. Joseph Foveaux in particular thought Bligh's restriction of land grants was detrimental to the colony's progress and he granted land to all who requested it, spreading the small farmers broadly across the Cumberland landscape. Even so, as John Booth's map of 1810 indicates, the "Cowpastures plains" was remote, at the edge of the known landscape. Restoring order after the rebellion, Governor Macquarie recalled a number of the grants given out by Foveaux and Paterson during the interregnum but he agreed that the "right" or northern bank of the Nepean should be settled. He had James Meehan survey the area and made additional grants on the Sydney side of the river. Some of these were modest,