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Picton is located on fertile land 68 km south-west of Sydney and 171 m above sea-level in the foothills of the southern highlands near Stonequarry Creek, a tributary of the Nepean River. It was once a thriving township servicing the traffic between Sydney and Melbourne. With the rerouting of the Hume Highway the town has become a quiet centre of considerable historic interest at the centre of a dairying and mixed farming area. Its current population is 3589. Once occupied by the Gundungura and Tharawal Aborigines, the first Europeans to investigate the area around Picton were the party of ex-convict John Wilson who passed through in 1798. They had been sent by Governor Hunter to accumulate data about the southlands to discourage convicts who were escaping and heading south in the belief that China was only 150 miles away.