Category - South Coast Pioneers

Emily Wintle’s fascinating story, as a South Coast pioneer, certainly deserves inclusion here.
But, there is also a second lesser-known story concerning her - one that Mark McKenna, Professor of History at the University of Sydney, indicates (writing in 'Meanjin', Summer 2018) 'is a story that continued to unfold long after it was published, unsettling the memories of the families involved, revealing previously hidden details and shifting at the edges as more information came to light' – that is just as intriguing...

R.W. Thatcher built, and in many cases designed, many of the buildings around Bega that were constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many of these have survived to this day. Without any question, he has been the town's most significant, most prolific builder...

Guboo (Ted) Thomas was a Yuin tribal leader. He was committed to pursuing Aboriginal land rights and preserving Aboriginal culture. The pioneering work he undertook became the basis of all future Aboriginal land claims along the South Coast...

William Roohan was a pioneer South Coast mailman...

Mei Quong Tart was a significant community leader on the Araluen-Braidwood goldfields. He ultimately became a successful Sydney businessman and philanthropist, and became the unofficial Chinese Consul in Sydney...

Arthur Halley Preddey (1876 - 1952) was a builder, sawmill owner and operator, coffin maker, undertaker, garage owner and operator, hire car operator, cinema and dance hall owner-operator, President of the Moruya Chamber of Commerce, Secretary of the Moruya Mechanics Institute, the town’s Deputy Chief Air Raid Precautions Warden in World War II (‘he was constantly seen with a set of binoculars at his ‘look-out’ at the Air Raid Pub’ in Moruya), Secretary of the Moruya Hospital, local Coroner…perhaps the most practical man in town…and the scourge of eleven Matrons at Moruya Hospital...

Thomas Newing was the Kiama district's prolific Dry Stone-Wall Builder...

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort has variously been described as an art gallery owner, auctioneer, coalmine owner, company director, copper mine owner and manager, dairy farmer, dairy products manufacturer, financier, grazier, horticulturalist, industrialist, investor, landowner, land speculator, manufacturer, philanthropist, wharfinger and wool broker. Eventually he was to also own 38,000 acres in the Moruya-Bodalla-Tilba area, and the Bodalla Estate and its produce, particularly dairy products, became widely known and very highly regarded...

Francis Guy (of Nelligen and Batemans Bay) was one of those influential larger-than-life characters typically found in pioneering communities - opportunistic, manipulative and often operating on the edge of the law...

John Gilmore was the Quarry Manager at the Moruya Granite Quarry from the time it was taken over by Dorman, Long and Company (who were building the Sydney Harbour Bridge) in late 1924 until it was closed in early 1932...

Dr Montague Evershed was, from 1873, the only doctor serving the South Coast area from Tilba to the Victorian border and west to Bombala...

Syms Covington was Pambula's postmaster, but his real claim to fame was he previously had been Charles Darwin's servant. Whilst at Pambula he sent specimens of local barnacles to Darwin...

In 1822 Governor Brisbane granted Alexander Berry and his business partner Edward Wollstonecraft 10,000 acres along the banks of the Shoalhaven River. This area was chosen because, as Berry wrote, 'Everybody was flocking to the Hunter River, Bathurst and other places…and all were elbowing one another. But we neither wished to elbow any one nor to be elbowed.'

Governor Brisbane also assigned 100 convicts to Berry and Wollstonecraft’s care, enabling them to build the first European settlement on the South Coast. This was the Coolangatta Estate which developed into what is now the town of Berry, named after Alexander and his brother David.

...but that's just part of Alexander Berry's interesting story!

H.J. Bate moved to his Mountain View farm in Tilba Tilba in 1869 and employed local Aboriginals to help clear his farm and then to work on the farm. Evidently ‘he gave them a big steak, bread and stew as pay…and they cleared all the property.’ This led to H.J being respected by the local Aboriginals, and he respected the local Aboriginals. Later H.J. was instrumental in having land (now the Wallaga Lake Koori Village) set aside at Wallaga Lake 'for the use of the Tilba Tilba tribe of aborigines'...