On 7 November 1820, Thomas Moore was 48 years old. A stone's throw from the peaceful waters of the George's River, he heard Governor Lachlan Macquarie proclaim a new township. Here at the leading edge of the Colony, this town would be known by the name 'Liverpool'. Across the next 30 years Moore would work to establish this new community and to help it take its place in the free society that was emerging from the penal colony of NSW.

More than half his life was behind him. Already he was an adventurer, a skilled craftsman, a ship builder, a Government official, a business man, a landowner with success in breeding cattle and horses, and a man who had been blessed with considerable wealth. Already he enjoyed a reputation for honesty, generosity and good practical sense. Now the time had come to draw upon this rich experience and to take Macquarie's new town into the future.

This is the story of how Thomas Moore of Lesbury became Thomas Moore of Liverpool.