‘Coolangatta’, 1873

The ‘Coolangatta’ was a 30-metre, 87-ton side wheel paddle steamer that had been built in Sydney Harbour in 1865. In 1873 she was owned by the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company.

In late February 1873 there was a massive flood on the Shoalhaven River. It actually resulted in the main settlement on the south side of the river moving from Terrara to Nowra…but on 27th February 1873, it also led to the sinking of the ‘Coolangatta’. There are two slightly different accounts of what actually happened – one claiming the ‘Coolangatta’ was travelling the short distance from Terrara to Pig Island (which is just downstream from the current Nowra Bridges) and was swept downstream, and this account which appeared in the ‘Nowra Colonist’ on 7th January 1903:

‘The steamer Coolangatta broke from her moorings at the eastern end of Pig Island at 3 o'clock the morning of the flood, and was washed out to sea. When the steamer parted her moorings Captain Avis was on board with the crew consisting of Henry Thistleton, George Davis, and Mr. Younger, the engineer, but the boilers of the steamer were undergoing repairs at the time, and without steam the vessel was powerless.

Captain Avis tried to beach the steamer whilst speeding towards the sea in the mighty current, but the efforts were unsuccessful, and nearing the Shoalhaven Heads, the hands on board under the captain's orders took to the boat and landed safely on the north point of Comerong Island at 4.5 a.m.. At daylight the steamer's clock, with the hands stopped at 13 minutes past 4, was picked up on the beach.

Several days afterwards the steamer was found, bottom-up, way out to sea, and was towed by one of the larger steamers of the I.S.N. Company to Greenwell Point, where she was used as a landing stage for years afterwards.'