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“EARLY SETTLEMENT.
“There seems no doubt, but that the first person to start the settlement in the Ulladulla district was a former New Zealand Missionary, the Rev. Thomas Kendall, who employed several parties procuring cedar. In the Lands Department records the following information appears in regard to Portion 189 of 1280 acres Parish Conjola:- ‘Land promised to the late Rev. Thomas Kendall on or before 6th December, 1827, by Governor Darling; authorised to take possession on 19th September, 1828, as a primary grant in lieu of the like quantity authorised for him on the 22nd July, 1828, but now granted to T.S. Kendall as his heir-at-law. Granted 26th October, 1840.’
“It would seem that a grant of land was promised to Mr. Kendall, who then started out to select a suitable piece. In the ‘Ulladulla and Milton Times” of 16th February, 1895, we read that in 1828, having received a grant of land from the Government, Kendall left Kiama in a small vessel owned by himself, accompanied by his son John, then aged 10 years of age, and two pairs of swayers. They sailed along the coast in search of cedar, and entered Jervis Bay, but not finding any cedar there they went south, and, when searching for a suitable landing-place, a blackfellow whom they had taken on board informed them, as Mr. John Kendall related it, that there was a ‘budgery harbour more further on.’
“They were thus guided into Ulladulla Harbour, though it cannot definitely be said they were the first white men to enter the port, for Alexander Berry mentions that in 1822 he ‘landed on several places,’ and walked for miles along this coast. He, therefore, may possibly have landed at Ulladulla.
“Surveyor Florance made a survey of the harbour in May, 1828, and Kendall possibly arrived as few months later, as he was authorised to take possession of a primary grant on 19th September, 1828. On the other hand, if Florance, who was married to Kendall’s second daughter, visited Ulladulla first, he would probably have given Kendall information concerning the position of the harbour. On one subsequent occasion Kendall’s party brought a boat up Narrawallee Creek.
“When they landed at Ulladulla they found a number of blacks camped on the north side of Millard’s Creek, and during their first night ashore, the murder of the visitors was contemplated by the aborigines, to whom one of the sailors had given offence, but they were saved through being warned by one of the natives, an ancestor of the present Dennie Parson. Consequent kind attentions to this friendly blackfellow in after years, by the Kendall family, resulted in many other natives from time to time presenting themselves fro favours, using as their passport the expression :- ‘Me bin save ‘im marsa.’
“When white people first arrived, it was considered that there were about 600 blacks in the whole district, consisting of two tribes, the coastal and the Pigeon House blacks, The latter tribe extended also towards Braidwood, and at certain periods both tribes would meet in a friendly way on a mountain range between the Pigeon House and the coast. This range is known as Kingiman, meaning ‘meeting place.’ The numerous grooves in the sandstone rocks on this range, near the old Pigeon House track, and which were formed by many generations sharpening their stone tomahawks, are silent witness of the numerical strength and mode of life of the natives in those bygone days. It is sad to contemplate that already their numbers have been so reduced that on these same mountains a blackfellow is now rarely, if ever, to be seen, and soon their native haunts in this district will know them no more.
“The grant that Mr. Kendall selected includes the Kendalldale Estate, and according to Surveyor Hoddle’s field-book, it is clear that the home was built near, and on the north side of Croobyar Creek. It is understood that the Reverend Mr. Kendall did not reside much in the district, but made frequent visits to see the progress of the work, and owned two cutters, the ‘Surrey’ and the ‘Foxhound.’ Among his numerous descendants was a grandson. Henry Clarence Kendall, born in April, 1841, at Kirmington, near Milton, to whom few will deny the honour of first place among Australian poets. In about the year 1836 or 1837, the Rev. Thomas Kendall was drowned through one of his own cedar-laden vessels being capsized, somewhere in the vicinity of Wreck Bay, and after this his son Thomas and family went to live near Croobyar, at the spot referred to as ‘Maniya’ by Surveyor Hoddle.”
Cambage, R.H., Captain Cook’s Pigeon House and Early South Coast Explorers, Samuel Lee, Sydney, 1911. pp. 22-23.
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