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The following account was transcribed from The Australian Town and Country Journal, 22nd March 1873 :
“A Morning on Broughton Creek.
“AT an early hour on the 21st January last, I took a passage from Terara, on board the ‘Coolangatta’ - a tender on the Shoalhaven, and its creeks, to the Illawarra Company’s boats plying between Greenwell Point and Sydney.
“The Coolangatta was about 100 feet in length, 30 feet in beam, flat-bottomed, and propelled by steam power acting on a wheel at the stern. It was laden with empty butter kegs, hides, flour, sugar, and other commodities, intended for the storekeepers and farmers settled at Broughton Creek village, and its vicinity, and it had to collect and bring the produce and the stock raised by those farmers, for shipment to Sydney, by the next steamer from the Point.
“The speed of the Coolangatta was not alarming - about four miles an hour - and as it moved slowly on, I had ample leisure to survey the beauties of Pig Island, on the left, and of the sand bank that is forming opposite to Numba, on the right channel of the Shoalhaven and to ruminate on the balancing influences of flood and ocean which have torn big slices from the one, and are slowly accumulating on the other, instead.
“At seven o’clock the entrance to Broughton Creek was gained. It is on the left bank of the Shoalhaven, about four miles from its junction with the sea, is navigable for fourteen miles, and runs through the heart of that portion of Mr. Berry’s estate which lies west of the river; though its course is very winding - so much so, and some of its bends are so sharp, that our vessel had to be warped round them on its voyage up.
“The creek is about eighty yards wide at the entrance; and though it is reduced to nearly one-half that width at the head of navigation, the contraction is so gradual that it is almost imperceptible; the depth is not great, and the effect of the tide - derived through the river - is felt as far as that head. Still, the water is never so brackish but that cattle and horses can drink and thrive upon it. The entire of the lands lying on the left bank have been reserved by Mr. Berry in his own hands - no part of them having been leased to tenants - and they are devoted to pastoral purposes only. The indigenous timber has been retained, in like manner, upon those lands that ever bore timber; but the forest being pretty open and the soil very good, they are well grassed and as the panting tender rounded corner after corner of the creek, the beat of its wheel and the snort of its steam roused many a herd of cattle and mob of horses from their rich food - on which the early sun was glinting, fresh and bright, here, on ‘clear streaks,’ there amid bush and tree. I did not observe a house or human being on this side, from the time the ferryman’s cottage was passed; but on an estate which numbers 400 families as tenants upon it, the proprietor is surely entitled to a reserve wherever he pleases to make it; judgment and good taste have been shown in the selection of this one - enclosed as it is by the creek and the river, Coolangatta mountain and the sea; and a very large income might be realised from the rearing and fattening of cattle on it.
“Portions of this left bank are many feet above high-water mark, others much less, some almost even with it, and nearly all of them appeared to preserve their respective levels so far as my eye could penetrate the glade; but gentle hills or sloping spurs seemed, occasionally, to sweep down from higher ranges, and merge in these levels at a little distance from the water, though none of them extended to it; and the immediate edges of the streams were usually fringed with ferns, myrtles, and vines. Towards the head of the creek, however, the bush suddenly ceased, and a great treeless flat - half grassy plain and half swamp - succeeded, spreading itself before us over an immense space. Then there came a belt of timber, followed by cornfields, till the creek split in two forks; and the Coolangatta (which had previously halted at the lower ones) was alongside its highest wharf, about half a mile from the village.
“The right bank of the creek, and the lands adjoining, are very different in their character, scenery, and uses. Nearly every acre of them has been cleared by the hand of man, or of God, and, except upon one vast plain, is under cultivation or pasturage. Some pretty trees, the native oak, a spreading gum, or glistening wattle, are dotted along its margin; the only other vestiges of the original forest are ghastly trunks of dead giants that tower overhead; cotter’s houses, shaded by peach trees, with a green paddock or two close by, are of frequent occurrence; and nearly all the rest are corn or potato fields - corn, waving to a height of ten or twelve feet, from the creek to the road skirting the mountains, and leading from the village to Bomaderry ferry - corn, as green, graceful, and succulent when I passed beneath the shade of it a teeming soil, a kindly sun, and a bountiful Creator could render it. The sight was indeed a cheering one, and filled the heart, as well as the eye, with delight. And though glimpses of the potato fields were but rare, being hidden by the corn, I knew they were there, from information received, and the sacks stuffed with the root, fresh from the earth, that lay at each wharf, awaiting the return of the Coolangatta. It was stated, too, that there were rich swamps lying between some of the corn-fields; but these were not visible from the creek. The vast plain last alluded to is nearly opposite to the one already described; and from its size and the quantity of its grass, it should support a thousand head of cattle - though I only saw upon it a couple of mobs of wild, but well bred horses, that had never felt bit or spur, and were as free as the air they breathe.
“I had forgotten; there were a dozen black swans quietly feeding on one of the greenest spots, about two hundred yards from the creek, but paying very little attention to the steamer. In the summer of 1872, Broughton Creek was alive with black duck; but now there are very few upon it - as is indeed the case all over the Shoalhaven district - but as they were shot by the thousand last year - swivel guns and other barbarous expedients being employed for their wholesale destruction - that may account for the present scarcity. I noticed one duck pattering up a bank, followed by eight little ones that could not have been more than two or three days old; and as this occurred on the 21st of January, the belief of many sportsmen - that our shooting season, for ducks at least, ought not to commence before the 1st of March, instead of the 1st of January - receives considerable support from the fact. A water-hen and a brown shag or two were the only other birds to be seen on the creek; and a dingo, or native dog, stealing away from a dead beast, a green and yellow snake, hanging from a branch, and a kangaroo - beautiful of head, neck, and shoulder, that sat watching us from a grassy point, backed by a large tree, but as we began to near it, soon made off into the bush, in those graceful, easy, yet rapid bounds from hind legs and haunch, that distinguish the movements of this animal from those of most others - were the only wild four-footed animals, or, creeping things, visible from it. But fourteen or fifteen years ago, when Mr. Berry and Mr. Osborne were considered the owners of all the cattle between Shoalhaven and Berrima, the mountains that bound the road on the west had many wild cattle running on them; and the stalking, shooting, or chasing of these, down to the open country, afforded good sport on many a moonlight night. Since the advent of Free-selection they have disappeared by some other and miraculous means ! The same mountains used to be the haunt of the brush pheasant [Lyrebird]; but it is now pretty well thinned.
“They are a portion of the Illawarra or Coast range, and vary from 1200 to 2000 feet above the level of the sea. Mr. Berry’s tenants on the base, and selectors above, have planted their houses, felled or ‘rung’ the trees, grown corn and potatoes, or formed dairy farms, far up their slopes, and their lights and shadows, deep gorges, green pastures and crops, their bold bluffs, timbered heights, and gray rocks, are in full sight, over the right bank of the creek, from Cambewarra to Broughton’s Head, from the begining to the end of its course - except where its windings turn to the east - and then Coolangatta hill, dark and big, threatens to block the way.
“As our boat passed the different farms on the right bank of the creek, it was hailed now and again by their anxious owners, inquiring ‘when it would return for the things ?’ and intimating what produce and stock - butter, corn, or potatoes, pigs, bacon, or calves - it would find there, or at the nearest wharf. And Paddy Murphy had a solitary porker which he had sold, and that boat ‘must take to Jim Doolan,’ who lived ‘at the next bend but two.’ But there never was a more fractious pig than Paddy Murphy’s; it required three men, one pushing it by the stern, and the other two hauling it by the ears, to shove it on board, along a couple of planks stretched to shore for that purpose - and how it did grunt, squeal, and refuse to be comforted ! It was evidently conservative in its tastes, however favourable to the existing state of things, whatever that was, for it exhibited as much unwillingness to leave the boat at the bend, as it had shown to enter it, and Jim Doolan, who met it there, evidently felt it was a treasure, as he tried in vain to drive it to his home, a rope round one of its legs, and a stout stick making frequent play upon its ribs as it bucked, dodged, ran between his legs, and almost upset him in a drain.
“At the upper wharfs there were some wild looking men, lank, long-haired, and brown, who had come down from the mountains in charge of kegs of butter, carried upon horses’ backs; a keg of the precious material swung each side by way of balance, or, if the farm of any of them had yielded one for that trip, a ‘dummy’ filled with mould was substituted for the genuine article, ‘to steady the beast.’ When the freights were discharged, away went the train to their upland homes, each man astride his horse, and perched between two empty kegs, dangling by his thighs, in place of the full ones. And an old fellow, thoughtful ‘for his little ones,’ bore off with him a great string of whiting, which a fisherman had brought for sale from Terara, and now bartered for a peck of potatoes.
“There were bullock teams, too, loitering at the wharfs, and laden with corn and potatoes, dead pork and living calves - teams, some of them consisting of four and some of six beasts, but all these were yoked by the neck in that unreasoning; power-destroying, barbarous method which is so universal in this Colony, and ought to be supressed by law as a cruelty to animals.
“It is a short distance from the head of navigation to the village of Broughton Creek, which is composed of two detachments or collections of thriving stores and neat cottages, planted in the valley of the same name, that is watered by the forks of the creek which flow through the upper parts of it for many a mile, but unite at that head; and there is a comfortable Inn at one of those divisions of the village, where a cheerful welcome, and good entertainment both for man and horse, can be obtained.
“Such is a simple sketch of one of those creeks (in any other part of the world they would be called rivers), that are so numerous in this country; but of which, and of the life and scenes they present, as little is known by nine-tenths of our people as of the affairs of Afghan, or Timbuctoo.
A. M’F.”
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