Roads, railways and tramways in New South Wales - all being extended over long distances in the second half of the 18th century - required blue metal. Enormous quantities of it.

Basalt in the Bombo-Kiama area was abundant, could easily be quarried and crushed into blue metal, and could then be shipped with relative ease to major centres such as Sydney. So, from the 1880s, Bombo-Kiama became the primary source of supply of blue metal in NSW...

Bushfires and floods are a recurring, regular feature on the South Coast. Every one is unique, every one impacts the area differently. The 1925 flood of the Moruya River was one that broke all records. It overtopped the Moruya Bridge by two feet (0.7 metres), inundated the town and the flood plains north of the river, and swept the Bermagui, a 144-foot, 400-ton coastal steamer, over a retaining wall on the riverbank and into the town’s swimming hole...