CHAPTER IV. 

 REMINISCENCES OF ILLAWARRA. 



Able pens have -failed to convey to the human mind the beauties of 

 Illa^arra and the Shoalhaven Valleys as presented to the eyes of the 

 visitors and settlers alike during the thirties and ea'rly forties. As 

 has been stated elsewhere, Mr. Alexander Berry commenced opera- 

 tions in the Shoalhaven Valley about 1820, where he established quite 

 a settlement of his own, which he and his partner, M'r. Wolstonecroft, 

 soon increased into a freehold comprising something like 80,000 acres, 

 which was afterwards added to very considerably. 



About 1822 Mr. David Smith was piloted to Kiama in quest of 

 cedar by an old skipper named Stewart in a twenty-five ton craft, and 

 Mr. Smith soon began trading between Sydney and Kiama, which 

 caused a small settlement to spring up. Mr. Smith was followed to 

 Kiama by Messrs. Michael Hindmarsh and Thomas Campbell, who 

 took up Alne Bank and Omega estates respectively. Mr. Hindmarsh 

 also commenced cedar getting, and a little later on went in for maize 

 and tobacco growing and pig raising, for which his property was most 

 suitable. 



in 1829 Messrs. Henry Osborne, George Brown, William Browne, 

 David Johnston, D'Arcy Wentworth, John Terry-Hughes, Mrs. Jemima 

 Jenkins, John Willie, Andrew Allan, and others were either per- 

 manently settled or rapidly preparing for such on those lands lying 

 north of Mount Foster on the south and on towards Bulli Jon* the 

 north, including Messrs. Smith, Hindmarsh, and Campbell. 



About 1830 Messrs. John Ritchie and William Ritchie (or Wright) 

 commenced cattle raising at Jambe'roo. These, with the exception of 

 a few smaller settlers and timber getters, comprised the whole of the 

 settlement lying between Berry's Shoalhaven estate on the south, 

 Samuel Terry and D'Arcy Wentworth's estate on the north, and be- 

 tween the coast range on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east. 



Mr. Samuel Terry's residence was then on the west side of Pitt- 

 street, where now is Martin Place. Alongside his cottage Mr. Tenry 

 grew cabbages for amusement. 



In 1835 Captain Collins had been commissioned by Captain 

 Hart, with a capital of 80,000, to select a locality and commence a 

 brewing and milling business in New South Wales. It had been re- 

 ported that Mr. Samuel Terry had accumulated by means of a brewery 

 something like 500,000 ; and that Mr. James Squires, by growing 

 hops and running a brewery, had also acquired enormous wealth. This 

 probably led Captain Hart to send his capital in charge of Captain 

 Collins to establish the business in New South Wales. Captain Col- 

 lins had been through the settled districts of the colony during 1833-34, 

 purchasing horses for India, and had, therefore, an opportunity of 

 seeing the most -favoured spots. So he chose Jamberoo, and after 

 naming his brewery, the " Woodstock," he engaged several families of 

 the name of Vidler in the early forties, who had been hop-growing 

 in the County Kent, England, and commenced hop growing opera- 

 tions at Jamberoo. He also had a flour mill and a sawmill erected, 

 and for a .few years the whole neighbourhood was in a state of boom. 

 This venture, however was not crowned with success, and after it 

 passed from the control of one manager to another Captain Hart ar- 

 rived on the scene from England a ruined man. Yet, by his capital, 

 he had done wonders in a very short period of time to boom Illa- 

 warra. 



183- 



