GENERAL HISTORY OF THE AREA

The original (traditional) owners of the land were the Wodi Wodi, Gurandada, Tharumba (Dharumba) and Wandrawdian tribes. These peoples have largely been displaced by European settlement except in areas such as Wreck Bay, in Jervis Bay, where an indigenous population administers the National Park and fishing activities in the area.

Captain Cook considered making his first landing on Australian shores in the Illawarra area, immediately north of Kiama, but was deterred by heavy surf before continuing on northward to his appointment with history, in Botany Bay, the following day.

George Bass landed in the Illawarra in 1796 when his small boat Tom Thumb overturned. Looking for fresh water, in company with Mathew Flinders and their servant William Martin, he met local Aboriginals. Bass anchored in Kiama harbour in 1797 and explored the area briefly. He also explored the banks of a river he named the “Shoals Haven River” due to the extensive sand spit partially closing the mouth. Significantly he considered the riverbanks suitable for “a nursery for cattle”.

In 1805 James Meehan and a naval officer explored the Shoalhaven River upstream noting plentiful rain forest timber, including cedar.

Settlement commenced during the early 1800’s, initially to provide labour for the activities of persons granted timber-getting licences, principally for cedar. One such was Alexander Berry. In 1822 Berry had built a large house and associated village at Coolangatta, on the south bank of the Shoalhaven River. The town of Berry was built, originally as a private estate town with the name of Broughton Creek, on the Coolangatta Estate and declared a municipality in 1868. The Coolangatta house and village later became the home of Coolangatta Estate Wines.

In 1827 a land grant was issued to Reverend Thomas Kendall who settled just north of the present town of Milton, a twin town of Ulladulla which lies immediately to its south. Further land grants saw significant development of the Milton Ulladulla area in the 1830’s.

Kiama was surveyed in 1819 and in 1830 troopers were sent from Sydney to set up camp and preserve law and order. A cedar sawyer, David Smith, who had lived in the area since 1821, built the first permanent dwelling in 1832. In 1837 the building became the Gum Tree Tavern.

In the mid-1840’s the settlements of Kiama and Ulladulla, both adjacent to good harbours, were developed as ports for the export of cedar taken from the forests on the escarpments to the east.

Nowra, which is located at the most downstream point at which the Shoalhaven could be easily crossed, was gazetted as a township in 1852. In the same year gold was reported at Yalwal, twenty kilometres west of Nowra, and the rush that followed saw Nowra rapidly prosper.

In 1861 a post-office service was opened at Nowra and in the same year Dave Power rode and walked the racehorse “Archer” 500 miles from Terrara, a small settlement east of Nowra, to Melbourne to take part in the first Melbourne Cup. After such well-planned preparation Archer duly won the race and returned the following year to repeat the feat.

In 1881 a wrought iron bridge was fabricated in Delaware, USA, and shipped to Australia to be constructed across the Shoalhaven River at Nowra.

In 1880 two quarries opened in local basalt rock near Kiama. The boom then being enjoyed in Sydney lead to great demand for Kiama basalt with more than 400 tonnes being shipped to Sydney, by sea, each day in 1883.

In 1917 the Commonwealth Government decided to locate a naval officers training college at Jervis Bay as part of its plan to develop a naval port. Jervis Bay was chosen because it was capable of accommodating the entire British fleet as it was at that time.

The college moved away from Jervis Bay in the 1930’s and 40’s, but returned in 1958 as HMAS Cresswell.

In 1939,just after the declaration of WWII it was decided to build an airfield at Nowra Hill, immediately west of Nowra. The Royal Australian Air Force has occupied the base ever since, often with other tenants including, US Army Corps, the Netherlands East Indies Air Force and the New Zealand Air Force. In 1947 the Commonwealth Government approved the formation of a Fleet Air Arm, to be controlled by the Royal Australian Navy and based at Nowra, the base to be renamed HMAS Albatross.

Albatross (as it is referred to locally) is now the largest employer in the Shoalhaven and is a very significant contributor to the local economy.

Jamberoo, a small village in a valley west of Kiama, was the birthplace of dairying in Australia in the 1850’s, the industry later spreading south through the Shoalhaven and beyond. Development of the industry in the twentieth century has centred on the Nowra area where Australian Co-operative Foods (ACF) have a major milk processing operation that collects milk from an area stretching from north of Kiama to Moruya.

Shoalhaven Starches, a part of the Manildra Group, located at Bomaderry, a village on the northern edge of Nowra, is Australia’s largest manufacturer of glucose and the only manufacturer of fructose. Starch manufacture is largely for paper production, particularly high quality paper, and the by-product ethanol is being utilised as a fuel additive.

As Sydney has grown, the region known as the South Coast has become a major tourist destination for the populations of Sydney and other conurbations such as Wollongong to the north. Tourism is now a major contributor to the economy of the entire Shoalhaven Coast area.