The Southwell family is one of the earliest, and probably the largest, pioneering family in the settlement of the Canberra, and certainly the Ginninderra district. Patriarch Thomas Southwell arrived in Australia with his first wife Eliza in 1838 from Robertsbridge, in the parish of Salehurst, East Sussex, England. They disembarked in Sydney from the barque, Lady Nugent, on 27th November, 1838.

Thomas and his family spent some time around Cobbitty in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales before settling on the banks of Ginninderra Creek. Thomas purchased an area of 987 acres in 1854 and named the property Parkwood. After the death of Eliza Southwell in 1852, Thomas married Mary Croxton. The two marriages produced 19 surviving children. Thomas was followed to Australia by three of his brothers, and a nephew.

Two of the brothers settled in the Ginninderra area. In this era families tended to be large. It was estimated that by 1938 there were 1,300 descendants. Members of the Southwell family were particularly active and successful in agriculture – primarily sheep and wool production, and also in other endeavours, such as the military, church, law, business, education, local government, and many other fields.

First and second generation Southwell’s followed in the steps of the Patriarch, and were especially active in the establishment and growth of the Methodist church. Southwell family members also married into other settler families on a prodigious scale, such that the Southwell family story is deeply intertwined with many other local settler families. The family is now represented through to the eighth generation.