The northern New South Wales town of Port Macquarie is a popular tourist destination, full of scenic beaches and parks.

Yet it was in one of those parks, on a hill overlooking the main town beach, that an Indigenous man became the only person ever to be hanged in the town — in purpose-built gallows in 1843.

The story has inspired a work of historical fiction titled Port Macquarie 1821, written by 93-year-old local author, Richard Grimmond, a founding member of the Port Macquarie Historical Society.

It is based on life in the Port Macquarie penal settlement, which was established in 1821, and has been written to coincide with the town's bicentenary next year marking 200 years since convicts were first sent to establish the settlement.

Port Macquarie was named by John Oxley after the governor of NSW, Lachlan Macquarie, in 1818, and the penal settlement existed there into the early 1840s.

Grimmond said Indigenous people featured prominently in the town's history.

One of them was a man named Terrymidgee.

"All we know about Terrymidgee is he was hanged on the October 25, in 1843, and the gallows were built for him outside the jail, at the present Rotary Park," Mr Grimmond said.

"He was convicted for the murder of three timber-getters. The story is there was a woman involved."

Terrymidgee was sent to Sydney for trial, found guilty and returned to Port Macquarie where he was hanged.

Grimmond said the gallows built in Rotary Park stood for many years.

"I don't think there is any record of the burial," he said.

"The Terrymidgee gallows stayed in Rotary Park for years and years, but were never used again.

"Historic records say he was the only person ever [hanged] here."

Heroic rescue

Grimmond said some Indigenous people worked with the local military at the penal settlement.

"They cooperated with the military, they volunteered to be trackers and they were called bush constables," he said.

"They were trained to use muskets, they could bring the convicts back in at gunpoint."

A group of Aboriginal men also conducted a heroic rescue in Port Macquarie, believed to be Australia's first recorded surf rescue, in 1827.

Grimmond said seven men reacted quickly after a huge wave overturned a small European pilot boat as it made its way back in over the bar at the Hastings River.

"Coming back in a wave tipped them over and all seven were tipped into the surf, none of them could swim," he said.

"Fortunately there were seven aborigines on the river's north shore.

"They dived in, swam out, righted the boat and rescued the seven people by putting them in the boat and bringing it into shallow waters and putting them ashore.

"This was reported to the governor and all seven received medals."

The Port Macquarie Hastings Council is planning a Bicentenary festival for next April.

The council is working with Local Aboriginal Land Council representatives to identify activities to open the festival program and recognise sites of historical and cultural significance throughout the event.

Story By | By Emma Siossian and Cameron Marshall