Sister Cities

Hunters Hill has Sister City relationships with Le Vésinet in France, and Richmond Valley in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.

 

Hunters Hill – Le Vésinet

On July 1988, Hunter’s Hill Council formed a pact of friendship with Le Vésinet, a municipality 20 kilometres west of Paris, of a similar size, character and history.

Early French settlers, including the Joubert brothers and Gabriel de Milhau, were influential in gaining the proclamation of Hunters Hill as a separate Borough in 1861 and at that time it was already known as the ‘French Village’. Much of the character of the Municipality has developed since that time.

In 1991, as part of the Hunters Hill-Le Vésinet relationship, the first delegation of students arrived from France to experience Australian life for six (6) weeks.

Groups of Australian and French students have been exchanging ever since.

 

Hunters Hill – Richmond Valley

Richmond Valley is a local government area in the Northern Rivers region of north-eastern NSW.

Rivers have significance for both cities.

Hunters Hill is a leafy sandstone peninsula stretching from Pittwater Road to Onions Point, at the convergence of the Lane Cove into the Parramatta rivers; approximately seven (7) kilometres from the CBD of Sydney.

The Aboriginal name for the land is Moocooboola, meaning meeting of waters.

The original inhabitant of the area was the Wallumedegal clan who used the Woolwich area for thousands of years prior to European settlement.

Richmond Valley draws its name from the Richmond River, which flows through most of the council area.

The traditional custodians of the land of the Casino area, or Djanangmum as it is known to Aboriginal people, are Galibal. The wider area known today as the Northern Rivers was occupied by the Bundjalung-speaking peoples, made up of an estimated 20 different language groups.

Pastoral settlement in the Richmond Valley began in the 1840s, more than a decade after the Richmond River had first been entered from the sea by Captain Henry Rous.

Richmond Valley Council was formed in February 2000 as a result of the amalgamation of the former Casino Council and Richmond River Shire Council.

The area of around 3050 square kilometres has a population of about 23,000.

The cities support one another in times of need. When bushfires hit Richmond Valley in 2019, Hunters Hill offered support through fundraising and donation of goods.

Primary schools from the two areas have also participated in letter writing exchanges.