The first time that Edmund and Catherine Collins appear in the records of the NSW Registery it is for their marriage in 1843 at St Francis Xavier's Catholic church. Theirs is not an easy road to follow.
Little information is available from archives.
They pop up again in 1846 in Campbelltown, NSW, about 50 kilometres from Wollongong, where Edmund is a baker. Three children are christened in St Peter's Anglican Church, Campbelltown. An ecumenical couple this. Two of their children are buried in that same period. The area around the present town of Hill End, along theTurong, became a magnet for thousands of settlers, looking for quick riches on the banks of the river.