Ships and Shores and Trading Ports

Wollongong

1815 Dr Charles Throsby drove his cattle from west of Sydney down over the Illawarra Range, and other settlers soon followed, establishing farms on the coastal strip. A first the area was called Five Islands, because o he offshore landmarks, but it became known as Wollongong, an aboriginal word meaning 'Song of the Sea'.

The nomadic cedar cutters had already moved in, so in order to gain some control, the southernmost area of occupation was set at the Illawarra in the 1820s. By 1829 the town was partly surveyed, with a military post, a lock-up and a courthouse. Rough tracks connected.

Sydney with the Illawarra, but cartage from Parramatta was slow and expensive. Sea transport was the best way to bring necessary goods into the settlement, and in the frontier days, a favoured inbound cargo was rum!

Only with great difficulty could sawn cedar be sent up the range - so logs were carted to the beach at Wollongong and floated out to the ships. And the first farmers sent their grain, vegetables and stock on the small ships that traded to the open port.

Unfortunately shipping was somewhat unreliable, because loading on and off the beach had to be abandoned in a strong surf. So when Surveyor-General Mitchell visited the town in 1834, they considered ways of improving communications It was proposed that a long breakwater be built giving ships an enclosed harbour.

As the land cleared, more farmers took up small leases, growing crops of maize and vegetables, and raising pigs and cattle. Wollongong gradually became a base for producing food, with ships carrying the goods to the hungry Sydney market. The Illawarra became a dairy, with steamers like Maitland carrying fresh milk to the north in just five hours. Such a speedy reward ensured that dairy farming would continue to dominate the Illawarra rural economy.