BERRY

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Berry is one of a number of interesting ‘private towns’ that were erected on the South Coast – others including Merimbula, Boydtown, Milton and Bodalla.

The town is situated on land that was occupied by the Wodi Wodi, a subgroup of the Dharawal Aboriginal nation.

In 1812 George William Evans, a Government Surveyor, trekked between Appin and Jervis Bay and recorded his impressions of the area: ‘These valleys lead into a small river (Broughton Creek) which takes a north course from the main river of Shoals Haven and runs through ... a most beautiful meadow and loses itself in different branches which are the runs from the mountains and contain such fine cedar: it is my opinion that if the small river is navigable this part of the country would make a beautiful settlement.’

Itinerant timber cutters moved into the area soon thereafter to fell that ‘fine cedar’ and ship it off to Sydney.

The explorers Charles Throsby and Hamilton Hume, and surveyor James Meehan, visited the area in 1818-1819 whilst looking for suitable grazing land.

In 1822 Alexander Berry and his business partner Edward Wollstonecraft became the first European settlers in the area after they were granted 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) on the northern side of the Shoalhaven River and were assigned 100 convicts to work for them. They called their new estate ‘Cullengatty Farm’ from an Indigenous word ‘Cullengatty’ meaning ‘splendid view’ – but over time the farm became known as ‘Coolangatta Estate’.

(This Estate was to gradually grow – by the 1840s it covered 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares) and by 1863 it comprised an area of more than 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares). It soon was exporting thoroughbred horses to India, cedar to Europe, and cattle, tobacco, cheeses, wheat, barley and vegetables to Sydney. By 1824, Berry had started building a ship on the Crookhaven River (just south of the Shoalhaven River) to transport his farm produce to Sydney…and to give shipping access to the Shoalhaven River - which had a sand bar at its entrance - and to Broughton Creek, he employed Hamilton Hume and a party of convicts to dig a 175-metre canal between the Shoalhaven River and the Crookhaven River – a job they completed in just 12 days!)

Settlement at ‘Broughton Creek’ occurred from around 1825 at a point where the creek could be easily crossed. The first settlers were probably timber getters, then a tannery was erected, and in the 1840s a sawmill powered by a water wheel started operation.

Alexander Berry privately constructed a road across his estate from Gerringong to Broughton Creek in 1856. This was extended to Bomaderry by 1858.

By 1868, when the area was declared a municipality, Broughton Creek had a population of 300 and also had a post office, store, school and an inn that had been constructed to provide overnight accommodation to those travelling down to the Shoalhaven River.

In 1873 Alexander Berry died and his brother, David, became the owner of the Coolangatta Estate.

He was keen to develop Broughton Creek, so gave 16 acres to be developed into parks which included a substantial agricultural showground, and two acres each to four religious denominations (Catholic, Church of England, Methodist and Presbyterian) – these being situated on the four corners of the town. At the same time, he started selling off outlying parts of the Coolangatta Estate.

David was also responsible for 1879 and 1882 surveys of the town, which led in 1883 to some small sections of the town being sold off. By 1883 the population of the town had reached 1,300.

Whilst David was the owner of Coolangatta Estate, drainage systems were built in many of the flood prone areas. This resulted in the township of Broughton Creek being effectively extended to the west and uphill – basically to where the town is today.

When David Berry died in 1889, the town’s name, Broughton Creek, was changed to Berry in honour of the family. For a further 30 years – until 1912, when the last pieces of land in Berry were auctioned off - Berry remained a privately-owned town.

David Berry’s cousin, John Hay, who had been born and raised on the Coolangatta Estate, became the new owner of Coolangatta Estate and of Berry township. He, too, was keen to see Berry expand, with well-established saw milling and dairying industries by then providing the town with a sound economic base.

And the town did advance.

In 1893 Berry was linked to Sydney by rail, with the opening of the Kiama to Bomaderry line. (The station platform was later lengthened to accommodate the especially long trains that ran for the Berry Races. These seem to have ceased after World Wat I.)

In 1895, a Berry Central Creamery was built which was described at the time as ‘the largest and most complete butter factory in the colony’ and which, a few years later, became the first factory in NSW to adopt pasteurisation technology.

And then in 1899 a Berry Experimental Farm was established, its main claim to fame being its development of the Illawarra Shorthorn breed of cattle.

Berry has become a popular day trip destination from Sydney. The re-routing of the Princes Highway in 2017, away from the main street of the town, and having the highway completely by-pass the town has, if anything, enhanced the appeal of this historic South Coast town.