|
pp. 8-9.
“In October, 1819, Surveyor-General Oxley visited Shoalhaven and Jervis Bay in a small vessel called the ‘Emmeline.’ On October 8th, Oxley mentions that when at Black Head, near where Gerringong now stands, the Pigeon House could be plainly seen.
“He named the bay just south of Black Head, Cairncross Bay, but the name does not now appear on the maps.
On October 9th he was met by Surveyor James Meehan and party, who had been surveying in the Illawarra district, and reached the mouth of the Shoalhaven River, but did not enter owing to the breakers, but went into Crookhaven, and the next day hauled a boat across a narrow sandy ridge about 220 yards wide to the Shoalhaven River, where he was joined by Surveyor Meehan, who had travelled along Seven Mile Beach.
On October 12th he proceeded to Jervis Bay, Meehan and party going by land; and on the 14th, after having gone round the north side of the bay, they proceeded up Currambene Creek with the boats. Oxley and Meehan ‘landed and proceeded on horseback to examine the country on the north side of the creek, and found the country generally to consist of stoney hills.’
“Oxley writes : - ‘We saw no place on which even a cabbage might be planted with a prospect of success. A great many Kangaroos were seen and one large one was killed. At four, stopped for the night about a mile below where a stony ridge extends across the creek’ (the place crossed by Mr. Throsby) . . . . ‘I estimate the place where we stopped to be about 2 miles N.W. of the spot where the creek was crossed by Mr. Evans in 1810.’
“The details of the visits by Throsby and Evans have not been seen.
“On the 15th October, 1819, he says : - ‘We crossed the creek about three miles above our encampment on a ledge of rocks forming a fall of about 12 feet, and over which a very inconsiderable quantity of fresh water ran. We were obliged to make a circuit of some miles on account of the swamps and rocky ravines that fell into the creek, and perhaps a more miserable sterile country was never traversed by man. At the crossing place a small creek joins the main from the north.’
“This would be close to the present Nowra-Milton road, at the spot from which the locality known as ‘The Falls’ [Falls Creek] takes its name.
“Oxley says : - ‘We traversed several miles on the south side of the creek, the country intersected by marshes, the land sterile and covered with shrubs and grass trees, with diminutive gum and mahogany trees.’
“This last descriptive applies to the country near the junction of the Milton and Jervis Bay Roads.
“On the same day he writes : - ‘We fell in with five natives who were friends of our guide Broughton, and at his request they joined us, and when we had recrossed the waterfall, guided us to a high conical forest hill [Nowra Hill], being the highest of the tract of country lying between Shoalhaven River and Jervis Bay, the country in the immediate neighbourhood, better clothed with grass, heavily timbered, the soil a stiff mould, with abundance of Indigofera and various species of Acacias. On top of the this hill was a native tomb, decorated with boughs; Broughton informed us it contained an infant daughter of his.’
“This spot is what is now known as Nowra Hill, about four miles southerly from the town of Nowra. The identification of this conical hill is placed beyond doubt, owing to the fact that bearings were recorded to several prominent points, including Collangatta, Jervis Bay Heads, and the Pigeon House. Surveyor Meehan marked an Ironbark tree on the summit, from which he commenced a survey which extended north-westerly to the Shoalhaven River, and northerly to Mr. Charles Throsby’s hut in the Moss Vale district, which he reached on 22nd October, 1819, and Oxley returned to Jervis Bay.
“Meehan appears to have crossed the Shoalhaven River somewhere in the vicinity of what is now known as Grassy Gully a little above the spot reached by him in 1805. On the 18th October, 1819, he writes : - ‘Went across the river on a hard pebbly bottom, but the bank a little steep on the south side, but is perfectly safe. The water runs very rapid - is about 3 (chains) wide. This side is earthy banks. Marks of very high floods. Am informed that Mr. Throsby crossed south of me.’
“On the 19th October, when between the Shoalhaven River and Mr. Throsby’s, he mentions crossing the heads of streams and writes : - ‘I think they form Broughton’s Pass Creek.’
“Oxley wrote : - ‘The entrance into the Shoalhaven is so extremely difficult and dangerous, that even if it afforded a much greater quantity of good land on its banks and in its vicinity than it appears to me will be found, it can never be a settlement of any consequence; in fact the policy of settling it at all will and must altogether depend on any easy communications being found from its north shore to the country N.E.’
“It must be remembered that when these remarks were made, railway trains and steamships were unknown in Australia, and the former were not in use in any part of the world.”
|
