NSWPort & river
Shellharbour
A small natural harbour was once the farmers’ only road to Sydney.
1851Private town of Peterborough laid out
WHAT STARTED IT
The sheltered harbour was the nearest safe landing for the Peterborough estate, Macquarie River and Stoney Creek farms, which were cut off from Kiama by Mount Terry and the Minnamurra. Cedar was rafted out to waiting ships here before a township was laid out beside the water in 1851.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By 1856 eleven families lived in the township and drays brought butter, wheat, potatoes and pigs to the harbour for the Sydney steamers; a jetty followed in 1859 and a breakwater in 1879. When the railway arrived in 1887 shipping declined, and the council moved its chambers to Albion Park in 1897.
TURNING POINTS
1843Caroline Chisholm brings 23 families to clear land on Robert Towns’s part of the Peterborough estate.
1851The private town of Peterborough is laid out and registered beside the harbour on 22 September.
1859W. Groat builds the first jetty, and Shellharbour Municipal Council is constituted on 4 June.
1879A breakwater is built to shelter the harbour, and is raised and extended the next year.
1897Council moves to Albion Park as the railway draws trade away from the port.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
Shellharbour Village is a harbourside suburb of about 3,500 people, where Addison Street’s old cottages have largely given way to shops and units. The name now also belongs to the whole city and its new centre inland.