Shellharbour Foreshore Conservation Area

DESCRIPTION

NameShellharbour Foreshore Conservation AreaTypePark/ReserveDescriptionShellharbour Village was part of an original grant of over 13,000 acres to D’Arcy Wentworth in 1821, which he named The Peterborough Estate.

In 1830, D’Arcy’s son, William Charles Wentworth, obtained the rights to cut cedar from 5268 acres between the Minnamurra River and Mount Terry. John Pugh Nichols was Wentworth’s manager and the timber was delivered to from the forests to the port at Shellharbour.

Cedar planks were transported to the foreshore where they were tied together into rafts and floated out to ships waiting in the natural harbour. The timber was then sent to Sydney to be sold.

The harbour was improved several times over the years and was crucial in the success of the settlement of Shellharbour’s early 19th century twin estates – D’Arcy Wentworth’s Peterborough Estate (Shellharbour), and Samuel Terry’s Terry’s Meadows Estate (Albion Park). Settlers relied on shipping at the harbour to transport goods to and from the Sydney markets.

In 1843 Caroline Chisholm, ‘The Emigrant’s Friend’ brought 23 families to settle at Shellharbour on clearing leases offered by Robert Towns (son-in-law of D’Arcy Wentworth). The families arrived at the natural harbour and spent the first night huddled under the roots of a massive fig tree on the Shellharbour foreshore. The fig trees that remain at Little Park today are hundreds of years old and icons of not only Shellharbour Village, but the wider Shellharbour City, often marking the site of an old farmhouse or dairy. The fig trees were also reputedly used by the local Police Constable, to tie criminal offenders to, prior to the establishment of a suitable lock up in 1877.

When official post office services commenced the name Peterborough was abandoned and the Shellharbour adopted – so named owing to the vast quantities of shells, largely Aboriginal middens that lined the foreshore.

The safe harbour adjacent to the foreshore, used for moving produce to and from the Sydney markets, was the catalyst for the founding and growth of the village throughout the 19th century. To take advantage of the harbour's natural assets, stores and harbour improvements were successively made. The harbour was vital in the success and growth of Shellharbour, as it was the only means of transporting goods to and from the Sydney markets. Lime, wheat and later dairying industries all thrived thanks to shipping and the harbour.

Shellharbour Foreshore Conservation area has an important relationship with another historic site, The Hill, or Signal Hill at Croom, home of the Dunster family for generations. Signal Hill was a key communications relay point for settlers living in the Macquarie Valley, Albion Park, Croom and Dunmore, who were advised of ships docking the harbour by means of a huge wicker ball, hoisted atop a fig tree at Signal Hill.

The foreshore was used as a public reserve from the earliest days of European settlement. Peace celebrations at the end of the First World War were held in the Little Park, which was a popular spot for community picnics and get togethers. On Arbor Day in 1895, the community came together to beautify the reserve and plant the Norfolk Pine trees that line the foreshore today. Isabella McGill planted one of the trees and was recorded as the oldest female resident in the area. She was just 65 years old.

Tourism and holidaying became an important motivator for providing accommodation in Shellharbour Village, from large buildings such as the Ocean Beach Hotel to more modest family owned holiday houses. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people bathed in the rock pools which were later replaced by Beverly Whitfield pool.

In the closing decades of the 20th century as new surrounding suburbs replaced dairy pastures, Addison Street altered its appearance from detached cottages to more intensive and attached forms.

The arrival of the railway to the region in the late 1880's saw a decrease in the importance of shipping in the municipality. The major industry in Shellharbour by that time was dairying which largely took place in the fertile meadows of Dunmore, Croom, Albion Park, and the Macquarie Valley. Consequently major civic and public services, including Shellharbour Council, moved to Albion Park to be closer to the rail line.

Today the Shellharbour foreshore is as popular as it ever was with locals and tourists alike. It is a meeting place for family and friends, a place for fishing and swimming, leisure and recreations pursuits, and a place for the community to come together.

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