CROOKHAVEN/ORIENT POINT

Cook-Haven was named by George Bass in December 1797 on his eleven-week, 1,200-mile voyage of discovery that took him from Sydney to Western Port in (present day) Victoria.

The Crookhaven River (and, therefore, the Crookhaven Heads area) became important once Alexander Berry had a canal dug connecting it with the Shoalhaven River, providing ships with direct access to the Shoalhaven River (and ultimately to Nowra and the township of Berry).

In 1872 local businessmen erected a brass lantern on a pole at the entrance to the Crookhaven River as an aid to shipping. In the following years a pilot’s station and a small jetty were erected at Crookhaven Heads.
Predating this, in 1836 David Berry acquired 155 acres of land at Orient Point (then known as Crookhaven) and in the 1840s he moved a number of his Aboriginal and Maori workers there from his Coolangatta Estate. (Maori had been brought from New Zealand to work on the Coolangatta Estate. Inter-marriage between them and the Aboriginals created an unusual mix, somewhat like what happened on Pitcairn Island when mutineers from the Bounty formed relationships with Tahitian women.)

By 1891, 236-acres of land adjacent to the Crookhaven headland were set aside as a recreation reserve. Like so many other places in the area, Crookhaven was becoming a popular camping location.

In 1900, 27-acres of land were taken from the Crookhaven Park Reserve and became the Roseby Park Aboriginal Reserve. By 1903 there were 100 people living on the reserve, including 42 children, necessitating a Roseby Park Aboriginal School to be opened. In 1907 the Aboriginal Reserve was expanded by a further 39 acres by the Aboriginal Protection Board.

In the 1910s Henry Halloran, a land speculator, real estate agent and surveyor, acquired most of the land at Orient Point between Roseby Park to the Crookhaven Park Reserve. This was intended to become the first suburb in a major development called St Vincent City (Culburra was to become the second suburb.). Sales of Orient Point land occurred in the 1920s and the ‘suburb’ developed.

Orient Point once had a significant shipbuilding industry. When World War II started, a shipbuilder by the name of Dave Evans, was building two 65-foot trawlers in Orient Point and was awaiting delivery of their engines. In 1942 he was directed to hand them to the US Army Small Ships division that towed both vessels to Sydney where they were fitted with engines. They were then used in and around New Guinea. The boats were never returned and Dave received no compensation! In the 1950s a gale destroyed his wharf on the Crookhaven River.

Image: Aboriginal houses at Roseby Park. nla.obj-137939659