There has been a river draining and fashioning the area we know as the Hunter Valley for, in very round terms, at least 50 million years.
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The land took shape 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, volcanic extrusions and sedimentation dominating.
Later, during the late Permian period about 250 million years back, the Newcastle coal measures were laid down.
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Then a rupture in the earth's surface threw up the Great Dividing Range which streams drained to east and west.
Recognisable floodplains formed. Over a long period of time the sea level rose and fell with the ice ages.
At one stage, more than 100,000 years ago when sea level was 120 metres lower than it now is, the coastline was about 30 kilometres east of its current location.
By 6500 years ago the sea was a few metres higher than currently and beaches formed at the site of today's Largs.
For the past 5000 years, sea level has approximated its current level.
A warmer climate since the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago saw the eucalypt and cedar forest assemblage evolve.
Over the millenia, floods deposited the silts and sands that are in places more than 30 metres thick.
The river's course changed frequently: it once flowed down what is now known as the Oakhampton floodway (under the Long Bridge) and through Howes Lagoon near Raworth.
Into this evolving environment of forest and floodplain came human beings.
Given that Aborigines are known to have occupied northern Australia 65,000 years ago and reached Tasmania more than 40,000 years back, it can be inferred that the first humans might have lived in the area of today's Maitland about 50,000 years or more ago.
That figure implies human occupation of the area for perhaps a tenth of one per cent of the life of the river.
Considerable vegetation change occurred after the Aborigines arrived, grasses covering more of the land as a result of firestick farming.
Europeans arrived only 200 years ago, an eyeblink in terms of human occupation and even less of a fraction of the geological history of the area.
Quickly, widespread vegetation alteration and dramatic changes to the regime of the river occurred.
The environment changed dramatically in mere decades.
What we see now is nothing like what existed two centuries ago, and even less like what was on show many thousands or millions of years back.
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