2 8 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



dangerous. An excellent coach-road leads from Kiama up the mountain to Moss Vale, 

 passing through the village of Robertson, and skirting the Wingecarribee Swamp. This 

 is a favourite drive, and picturesque from start to finish. 



The drive from Kiama southward to Broughton Creek, a hundred and nine miles 

 distant from the metropolis, is one of the greatest treats the hospitable residents of the 

 coast can place on a traveller's programme. Several small bays, each worthy of a 

 ski-tcliing party's efforts, are passed, and every mile of the way is pleasantly diversified 

 until the pretty village of Geringong is reached. Here, too, there is dairy-farming, and 

 a small port from which in fair weather produce can be sent. At this point ends for 

 a time the freehold system of farming, for here is the boundary of the great estate of 

 the Berry family. Broughton Creek is a village surrounded by fertile soil, which yields 

 large crops of maize and considerable quantities of dairy produce. A steamer, put on 

 specially by the late Mr. Berry for the use of his tenants, plies regularly between the 

 metropolis and the Creek, which is entered from the Crookhaven and Shoalhaven Rivers. 

 Ten miles southward, the wide low-lying 'alluvial flats of the Shoalhaven River contain 

 no fewer than twenty-one towns or villages, of which, including the farms of Broughton 

 Creek, there are about fifty thousand acres under crop, the Berry Estate comprising 

 nearly one hundred thousand acres in this locality. The principal product is maize, of 

 which in good seasons very large yields are obtained. The Shoalhaven River is crossed 

 by a bridge extending over one thousand lineal feet of water. Nowra, a thriving 

 business place, is the principal town and has the chief public offices of the district. A 

 good road runs from Nowra up to Moss Vale on the table-land, the coach covering 

 the distance in about six hours. This road is not a uniform ascent to the plateau, for 

 after rising some distance it descends into the lovely Kangaroo Valley, evidently once 

 the bed of a lake, and now a singularly rich flat, sheltered on all sides, except where 

 the Creek winds its rugged way down to the Shoalhaven River. An admirable road has 

 been cut up the mountain, and not far from the summit are the Fitzroy Falls. The 

 view ascending or descending is quite equal to any on the coast ; indeed, the journey 

 down the Bulli Pass along the coast to Shoalhaven, and up the seaward slope of the 

 mountain to Moss Vale, is one which all travellers in search of fresh natural beauties should 

 not fail to make, as it includes some of the most charming coast views of the colony. 



South of the Shoalhaven River there are forty miles of sandstone country to cross, 

 the soil of which is not inviting to the agriculturist. The road passes through dense 

 forests utilized to some extent by shipments made at Jervis Bay, near which there are 

 some good coal-lands as yet unworked, for. the simple reason that other parts of the 

 coast meet the present demand. After a dreary drive or ride the traveller reaches a 

 prosperous dairy-farming district, of which the chief centres of settlement are Milton and 

 Ulladulla. The latter is on the shores of the harbour, which is sufficiently commodious 

 for the requirements of the district. In this locality there are beds of clay well suited 

 for the manufacture of the best kinds of pottery, and, although not now utilized, it is 

 thought, and with good reason, that the time is not far distant when Ulladulla may 

 become an Australian Staffordshire. 



The next settlement worthy of note is Moruya, about two hundred miles south of 

 the metropolis. Slate and granite quarries have been opened in the neighbourhood, and 



