NUMBAA

Numbaa is now a farming area but was once the site of a reasonably substantial village.

It was part of the large 1822 land grant to Alexander Berry and Edward Wollstonecraft that straddled the Shoalhaven River. Because the soils on the south side of the river were more fertile it immediately became a farming area for corn, potatoes and wheat…with Alexander Berry building a substantial grannery/flour mill in 1830 in nearby Pyree before it was realised that wheat developed rust and was, therefore, an unsuitable crop. Dairying then became a substantial pursuit.

A large dairy was developed by Alexander Berry at Jindiandy, close to Upper Numbaa. This he strategically placed three miles from the river bank to reduce risks from flooding.

A Jindiandy Butter Factory operated from 1889 to 1902. From 1912 to 1927 the Fresh Food and Ice Company used the old butter factory to receive milk that it then shipped to the Sydney market.(At one stage a steamship service operated four times a week, connecting Numbaa with Sydney.) After 1927 cream from dairies in the area was taken to the Nowra Co-operative.

The first farm south of the Shoalhaven was at Numbaa. Numbaa also housed the first Presbyterian church in the Nowra district (initially one built of cabbage tree tops, which was replaced in 1855 by a large iron church) and Numbaa was the site of the district’s first post office. A punt at Numbaa across the Shoalhaven River was installed in 1858. By 1866 Numbaa had a population of around 200. A public school operated in Numbaa from 1883 to 1953. The township also included other churches, a hotel, a courthouse, a bakery, a ballroom, quite a number of cottages, a cemetery, and a race track.

In 1868 the Municipality of Numbaa was incorporated. It seems to have amalgamated with, or been taken over by, another municipality by the early 20th century, a July 1931 newspaper reporting 'Perhaps the oldest building, certainly the most historic connection with the early days, of this district was demolished last week, at Numbaa. It comprised the old courthouse, gaol, library and council chambers, and in later days, in the time of the late Mr. Edward Pritchard, did service as a blacksmith shop for the proprietor, Mr. Geo. Coulthart, who was the village smithy there for quite a number of years…In the early days it was regarded as one of the most pretentious structures established under Government dictation for the object of maintaining law and order, and providing good local government in every sense of the word.’

On 30th March 1892 Berry’s Numbaa estates, which then ‘consisted of between 5000 and 6000 acres, apportioned into some 108 farms from 20 to 200 acres’ were sold at auction.

Numbaa township declined (and it eventually disappeared) as Terara, and later Nowra, grew.