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HOME OF THE LADY DENMAN - Local history isn't always about the big story - the everyday story of life in the early development of the region can be a fascinating, entertaining and educational journey.

27 May 2018

Tomerong, centre of local government. 1908

1906 The small community of Tomerong was thrust into the public eye with the formation of the district Clyde Shire Council.

1908 The first meeting of the council was held in the newly erected Council Chambers.  At this time Tomerong was considered to be a central location between Nowra and the Milton/Ulladulla districts. All road carriage travelling north or south passed through Tomerong.  It was also in close proximity to a steadily growing Huskisson on the shores of Jervis Bay.

Any petition signed by fifty householders could initiate the establishment of a Municipal Council. The Council could implement rates and tolls to finance roads, bridges, hospitals, water supplies, cemeteries and other public facilities.

The newly established Clyde Shire was vast in size and commenced from Crookhaven Heads skirting the southern boundary of the South Shoalhaven Municipality to Falls Creek. It continued north-west following the southern boundary of the Nowra Municipality to the Shoalhaven River and then to its junction with the Endrick River. Following the Endrick to its source, the line continued south across the ranges to a point south of Budawang Mountain. The southern Clyde boundary followed the creeks east from north of the Clyde Mountain to a point near Durras. The eastern boundary followed the coastline north back to the Crookhaven Heads but excluded the Municipality of Ulladulla. The Clyde Shire was surrounded (anti-clockwise) by the South Shoalhaven Shire, Nowra Municipality, Cambewarra Shire, Wingecarribee Shire, Mulwaree Shire, Tallaganda Shire, and the Eurobodalla Shire.
Ref: http://home.exetel.com.au/tomerong/history2/index_files/Page840.htm

The arrival of his Excellency the Governor of NSW, Mr Harry Rawson.

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October 1908 - Tomerong residents and school children were busy preparing the small village for a special occasion. His Excellency the Governor of N.S.W. Mr Harry Rawson was coming to town.
Local people erected a large arch across the road,  festooned with ferns and flowers, through the centre of the arch were the words "welcome" also covered in flowers. Above that coloured flags were flying in the breeze, long colourful ribbons tied at the top of the arch and anchored to various points helped to support the structure..
It must have been a very special occasion for the children of the district, I'm sure they would have never seen anything quite like it before.

People from all over the district travelled to Tomerong for the occasion. The men donned hats and dressed in their best suits, the women wore long flowing dresses typical of the time.
The children looked wonderful in their best clothes,  and many of the young girls wore hats decorated with ribbons.

222-Tomerong-township-welcomes-governor 1908 Visit by governor hawkens road looking north.

The official party arrived, as the Governor left his vehicle to address the waiting children he noticed a local woman Mrs Canavan seated in a wheelchair at the corner of the playground. The Governor proceeded to cross over and introduced himself, shook her hand and expressed his sympathy at her plight. This brought a hearty cheering by the children which echoed through the surrounding bush.

These close up images are very revealing which are easily overlooked in the larger image.


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Huskisson View

Below is a photograph from the museum's collection looking across the "Huskisson Camping Reserve." Robert Johnsons Grave can be seen fenced by pickets.

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24 May 2018

Bridges washed away south of Nowra - 1936


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The Shoalhaven climate has certainly changed, even in the 40 years I have been living here permanently, the area had dried out considerably. The Shoalhaven was once known to Sydney siders as " The place where the weather came from." because of the amount of rain that came from the south.

Following is an account of the flood damage inflicted on the district between Nowra and Wandandian.


March 1936 The Nowra district was in the grip of torrential rain, wide areas of the district were subject to flooding.  At least three bridges had been washed away on the highway making
the Princess Highway south of Nowra impassable.

Holidaymakers and locals coming from Sussex Inlet trying to travel north found
themselves marooned because the bridge at Cow Creek had been washed away.
Guesthouses in the area were full of stranded motorists returning to Sydney.

Many motorists, some with women and young children had to walk about 5 miles to the nearest shelter
at Wandandian. Temporary creek crossings were made by felling trees and making bridges of the logs.

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A recently completed concrete bridge at Wandandian suffered major structural damage when concrete pillars moved when the surrounding ground was washed away causing the bridge to sag about 4 feet

Mr Alfred Brooks of Strathfield via phone from Wandandian said.  - "Crossing the bridge scared more than one of us, we crossed on foot, we thought the whole structure was going at any moment." It was feared the Wandandian Bridge would have to be blown up and entirely rebuilt.

The many "service cars" which ran daily trips for travellers between Nowra, Jervis Bay, Milton and Ulladulla, were detained at Milton and Nowra.

Flooding affected other areas as well, Port Kembla reported widespread flooding. seven inches fell within a few hours, houses had a foot of muddy water through them. Port Kembla and the commercial Hotel were inundated with water, the later having 15 ft of water pumped from its cellars.

Lake Illawarra was 4 feet above normal level and was still rising rapidly as rain continued to fall.
The Shoalhaven River rose swiftly and the farmers in low-lying areas were forced to move stock to higher ground.

These sort of incidents were fairly common occurrences,  bridges, creeks and roads had many times in the past been badly affected by flooding rains and rapidly rising rivers, fortunately, the infrastructure now much better able to cope with the flooding rain. And it happens a lot less frequently than in the past.







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23 May 2018

The brigantine Adonis 1890.

Mystery still surrounds the sinking of another beautifully handcrafted timber ship built by the Dents on the shores of Currambene Creek Huskisson.

The brigantine Adonis was built at Jervis Bay by Mr. Dent in 1874.
She measured 108 tons, 92ft 4 inches in length, with a beam of 20ft 7 inches, and 8ft 3 inches depth of hold.

copyright free example of a brigantineExample of the fully rigged brigantine Leon from the era.

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21 December 1890  - Captained by John Richards with a crew of 6, she was on a voyage from Wollongong to the Richmond River laden with coal, the vessel was making good and all was going well. She was placed around 10 miles distant from the shore, the night was dark, the weather was light with a north-east wind, and a strong easterly swell.

22 December 11 p.m.  - Able seaman Ludwick Myer was lying awake in his bunk, hearing the sounds of water on the floor he struck a light and saw that water was coming in freely, he quickly went aft reporting the ship was full of water to the captain. The pumps were immediately set to work, but they could not cope with the inflow, the captain ordered all crew to the deck and make the boats ready. At the captains order the man at the wheel put her hard aport, the water by then was over the forecastle deck.
The crew came on deck saying the water was rising fast, they sounded the pumps and found there was over 3ft of water below and rising fast. The crew tried to get her onto land but without avail.  Realising there was nothing they could do to save the ship the captain ordered his crew to abandon ship the crew launched the lifeboats and managed to leave the ship safely landing at Crowdy Head at daylight.

15 minutes after abandoning the ship the Adonis sank out of sight.
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Official Enquiry.

1 January 1890 - during the official inquiry into the founding of the Adonis the captain and crew explained how they always looked upon the ship as a "thoroughly staunch and seaworthy craft".  The only explanation for the loss may have been if one of her planks was faulty.

Marine Board Findings.

7 January 1890 - The board deliberated on the abandonment of the Adonis, they found the abandonment was justifiable,  and there was no evidence on which to found a charge of default against the master, Captain Richards.

She was owned by Mr. Patrick Hogan and was insured.

A brigantine is a two-masted vessel with her foremast fully square rigged and her mainmast rigged with both a fore-and-aft mainsail (usually a gaff sail) and square topsails (and possibly topgallant sails).

An interesting fact about the Adonis.
Many ships were adorned with classical figure heads, but by the 1870's they went into decline and the last NSW made classical figure heads were a female bust for the schooner Venus of 1873 and a male bust for the brigantine Adonis of 1874.
REF: Ships figureheads in Australia.





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18 May 2018

Freighter in trouble off Jervis Bay - 1954


Fine weather and an offshore wind combined to save the British freighter Saint Edmund's from coming ashore on the coast near Jervis Bay.

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Tuesday 18 May - The 7,174-ton British freighter Saint Edmunds with Captain P.Ditton in command and 40 crew was on a voyage from Adelaide to Newcastle to load wheat for India.

11.30 am - In calm seas she suddenly came to an unexpected stop, an investigation found she had lost her propeller.image
The Jervis Bay Lighthouse keeper reported seeing her drifting only 10 miles off Jervis Bay. He said the ship was in no danger at that time.  Fortunately the weather was calm with a slight offshore westerly blowing which kept the vessel off the shore.

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6.45 p.m - The Waratah Tug Company tug Woona, left Sydney harbour and was expected to cover the 87 miles to Saint Edmund's by first light. image

Wednesday 19 May - Tow lines were attached and the journey to Sydney was undertaken.
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Crew members on the ocean going tug Woona adjusting the tow lines attached to the Saint Edmund's

Thursday 20 May
  - The disabled Freighter was towed safely into Sydney Harbour and berthed at No 1 Circular Quay before going into  Mort's Dock for repairs.

Crew members when interviewed about the incident said the ship would certainly have gone ashore if it wasn't for the offshore breeze.

The freighter was expected to resume her voyage to Newcastle the following Monday.







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16 May 2018

Greenwell Point road–then and now

The first photograph is of myself and my mother in 1961 on the long straight road leading into Greenwell Point. The second photograph was taken on the 13th May 2018.



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I remember this road so well as a child, coming down from Sydney and seeing the trees forming a long shady tunnel, it was so cool on this part of the road in summer it was always a highlight of our trips to the south coast. 







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15 May 2018

Old Woollamia

This fascinating photo shows Jim Louttit (brother of Ben) and Dick Prosser outside his hut at Woollamia.  The Louttit's were a well known family in the Huskisson district.

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As early as 1913 Ben Louttit ran a daily coach service between Huskison and Nowra which proved very popular with the rapidly growing population.

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Ben Louttit's passenger coach Huskisson.

By 1917 Ben was running a daily lorry service, which was well used by the local fishing industry for transporting their catch to Nowra.

Ben Louttit continued the daily motor lorry service into the 1930's.

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14 May 2018

The death of Thomas Speechley

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Sydney Evening News Friday 18 Nov 1904.


Soon after the tragic death of young Thomas killed by an exploding Navy shell he was playing with many articles appeared in Sydney newspapers from correspondents covering the official enquiry.

The navy denied it shot live shells on to the shore, saying they set up floating targets at the entrance of the bay, and only occasionally towards Bowen Island, regarded by the navy  "as an uninhabited place." They also said the shells were full of sand and were nonexplosive,  Asked why sand ?, The officer explained they were once filled with water, but this was replaced with sand as the weight was closer to a live shell.
They could not explain how a live shell could have been found where it was.

The article below was written in response to the statements above.

With reference to statements published in Thursday's "Evening News" regarding the Jervis Bay explosions our Nowra correspondent writes:
_ "Where the shell exploded is on the opposite side of the bay from Bowen Island at Point Perpendicular, the site f the new lighthouse and hundreds of shells are to be found on that side.  Of course, the population on either side is sparse,  but a  good many pleasure seekers often visit the spot.

'In many places around the shores of the bay tracks of these shells can be found.   They often tear up the ground for yards cutting a deep trench,  and afterward rising higher, and striking further on.  It's all very well for officers of ships to say they never fire towards shore, excepting towards " an uninhabited spot known as Bowen Island." If they did fire towards the island they would as likely as not hit the main shore on the south side, or fire on to the high seas; but everyone in the vicinity of Jervis Bay  knows that it has been the custom of the men-o-war to steam backward and forwards at the 'hole-in-the-wall.' and fire at a target opposite, which means they must hit the northern shore.  In proof of this, shells are often picked up miles from the entrance to the harbour."



Continue reading about Thomas Speechley, his lonely grave and his association with Jervis Bay.






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11 May 2018

Vessels in the bay

This morning the beautiful catamaran Hoo Roo was anchored on the mooring bouys near the entrance to Curambene Creek.  She looks like a fine vessel set against the early morning light on a cold winters day.


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3 May 2018

Old houses of Huskisson

Another beautiful old Huskisson house has been leveled for a new development.


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One of the nicest old houses which instantly took you back to another era has been leveled.  In a previous post, I mentioned it had been sold and hoped the new owners would see the value in keeping such an iconic house.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.  All there is left of the old house is part of the front held up by props.

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1 May 2018

Schooner Zoe–Jervis Bay

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1875 The launch of the Schooner Zoe.

The new topsail schooner Zoe was built by George Dent Junior at his shipbuilding yards on the banks of Currambene Creek Huskisson on October 30, 1875, to the order of Mr. George Hill, of Surrey Hills, Sydney. She was intended for the timber trade and was described as a "faithfully-built vessel" the whole of the timber used in her construction being well seasoned and the best that could be obtained.
She was 73 tons register. Her keel was 75 feet; beam 21 feet and depth of hold, 7 feet. She was described as having " fine lines".

87-George-Dent-IIIGeorge Dent Junior.

1888
A Dreadful voyage.
While on a voyage from Normanton to Port Jackson in November she fell into a series of heavy gales, with frequent spells of light airs and calm. The vessel frequently sought shelter under the different islands on the way down, putting into Cooktown, Mackay, Cape Moreton and Port Stephens through stress of weather. On one occasion whilst lying under Rocky Island, the vessel dragged her anchor and drifted within a few yards off the rocks.
Fearing she would go ashore the crew abandoned her and took shelter at the lighthouse keeper's residence for two days. The crew returned on board and in moderating weather managed to get the vessel clear of the danger.

If the crew thought this would be the last incident on this difficult journey they were mistaken.
While being forced to seek shelter from deteriorating conditions in the Pioneer River, the Zoe was driven ashore and remained hard and fast for several days. She was subsequently floated without damage and resumed her voyage only to be caught in bad weather which necessitated anchoring under Cape Morton.  The Zoe lost two anchors, with some chain in the bad weather and quite a number of sails were split or carried away.

1889 The tragic loss of the Zoe's cook.
Saturday 27, .
While anchored at Yamba the cook a Mr. W.Wells was reported missing. A fisherman named Sheather reported seeing attempting to swim to the schooner on a Monday morning. The swimmer was showing signs of distress and Sheather tried to rescue him, but the tide was too strong to render any assistance to the man, who afterward sank.

Tuesday 30.
The body of William Wells, the late cook of the schooner Zoe was found washed ashore on the North Beach of Iluka.

Zoe Foundered. 1895.
News arrived that the German Schooner Zoe had foundered, this was later disproven.


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Loss of the Schooner Zoe. March 1896

The first news to arrive in Sydney of the loss of the German Schooner Zoe came from the captain of the steamer Kurrara.  The Zoe operated out of Sydney before being sold to Messrs. Hernsheim and Company and used for the inter-island trade.

The Zoe started her fateful voyage from New Britain for a cruise through the German Possessions. All went well until she made for Bouganville on January, 17 when she ran onto a reef on the south-east side of the island.  The crew managed to escape in the boats,  but vessel and cargo of copra and trade were a total loss.




Continue reading about the Dent's.





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