TIMBER TOWNS: BROOMAN, TERMEIL, BAWLEY POINT

Timber-getting and sawing were major industries in the Murramarang area from the early 1850s through to the 1950s.

There were sawmills in Bawley Point, Kioloa, Termeil, Pebbly Beach, East Lynne, Benandarah and Flat Rock (5km north of Termeil) and a horse-drawn railway connected Bawley Point, Kioloa and Termeil enabling timber to be transported to ships that called to Bawley Point. Shipping to Bawley Point ceased by 1929, after which the area’s timber was transported by road and was shipped from Batemans Bay.

Brooman, on a bend of the Clyde River, had a population of about 200 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The town had a post office, school, dance hall, mechanics building, galley and general store.

Termeil had a hotel, church, post office, hall, butchery and store. It also had a boarding house that provided accommodation for travellers at the time when Termeil was the changeover point for horses providing the coach service between Batemans Bay and Milton. A sawmill at Termeil owned by Hepburn McKenzie, which opened in 1912, was described as the largest sawmill in the southern hemisphere at the time. However, once the timber industry became less important to the area, the township of Termeil declined. The hotel disappeared by the 1940s and the boarding house was burnt down in the 1950s.

Bawley Point’s name is believed to be derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘brown snake’. Its timber mill, and 10 weatherboard cottages for workers, were erected in 1891. Almost immediately it was affected by the severe depression of the 1890s. The Bawley Point Mill had its own ships to transport sawn timber to Sydney, two of which (the Bonnie Dundee in 1897 and the Gleaner in 1900) were blown ashore and wrecked at Bawley Point. The timber mill burnt down in April 1922.