Narooma Historical Society president Laurelle Pacey gave a talk on Saturday (20 September). Photos: Marion Williams.
An entertaining series of storyboards captures how the early settlers crossed Narooma’s Wagonga Inlet and how their innovative descendants introduced hydro-electric power and the first public water supply south of Nowra.
Narooma Historical Society created the exhibition to mark History Council NSW’s History Week 2025 theme of water stories.
Sea transport was vital for coastal settlements such as Narooma until after World War II.
Initially, small vessels carried cargo such as timber, wattle bark and oysters, mainly to Sydney. They returned with supplies, mail and occasionally passengers.
The small vessels could be stuck for weeks waiting for a favourable wind, so steamers revolutionised shipping.
Local sawmill owners built their own ships with shallow draughts specifically for Wagonga Inlet’s bar and shifting sandbanks. The superstructure was added in Sydney.
Even so, keeping the inlet open for shipping up as far as Wagonga was a constant challenge during Narooma’s shipping era.
A dredge in Wagonga Inlet to clear the bar or channel was a common sight, particularly from 1900 to the 1920s.
Between 1918 and 1936, “training walls” were built to concentrate the tidal rush to keep the bar at the entrance and the channel through ”the inner crossing” clear. That created a shark-free pool. Eventually, though, the turning boards grew oysters that cut swimmers’ feet.
Newspapers used to have talented sketchers.
In the 19th century, travellers on horseback had to cross coastal waterways by swimming their horses over or with willing locals rowing them across with the horse swimming behind.
Narooma Historical Society president Laurelle Pacey said lobbying started for a ferry boat in 1869.
“The government relented in 1894 and gave Narooma a hand-pumped ferry that had come from Bodalla,” she said.
There was no-one to operate it, users were charged ad hoc fares, and it only carried two vehicles. Motor power was installed in late 1920.
Around 1928-29, Narooma received a petrol-powered punt with an eight-car capacity after Batemans Bay had received a large steam punt that previously operated on the Georges River.
“Finally, to put us out of our misery, a bridge was being built,” Ms Pacey said. “It was the same time that Sydney Harbour Bridge was being built.”
Work started in 1929. The three-span steelwork was assembled in Newcastle one section at a time, taken to pieces and brought down in three shipments. The steel was unloaded at the town wharf and taken on site by bullock teams.
The bridge opened in 1931. It is listed on Transport for NSW’s Heritage and Conservation Register with state historical and technical significance. It was designed to allow ships to pass through.
Hydraulic engineer Doug Brice with the 1928 Pelton Wheel water turbine that he restored.
Using water for power is another theme explored in the exhibition. Doug Brice brought it to life by bringing in his Pelton Wheel water turbine. He knew it was at Mountain View Farm in Tilba, “going to rack and ruin”. He retrieved it in 1982 and it took a year to restore in his spare time.
A Swedish company designed it and an English company, Boving & Co, manufactured it in 1928.
Mr Brice knew about the turbine because his mother and grandmother had lived on Henkley Farm. His grandmother used to wake up at 3 am to get the fire going and make tea. Meanwhile, his grandfather, along with three sons, milked 60 cows by hand every day.
“Tilba, though, had an electricity-powered milking machine, so a more modern life was coming,” Mr Brice said.
Harry (HJ) Bate of Tilba Tilba’s Mountain View Farm was a great innovator. In 1910, he installed a private irrigation system that diverted water from Tilba Creek to a 50,000-gallon (189,270-litre) reservoir he built. He piped the water for more than a mile (1.6 km) using gravity. He expanded the scheme in 1921 and again in 1925 to supply the new Tilba Tilba cheese factory and several additional residents.
By May 1932, Mr Bate had installed a small hydro-electric scheme to power his home, the farm’s equipment, the new cheese factory, the church, the Tilba Tilba Hall and his employees’ homes.
Meanwhile, Narooma is believed to be the first town south of Nowra to have a public water supply. After a huge public meeting in October 1933, the council applied for special state relief funds to build a dam on Gulaga Mount Dromedary, a nine-mile (14.4 km) pipeline and 310,000 gallon (1,173,477-litre) town reservoir.
It was turned on in November 1935, about 20 years before Moruya and Batemans Bay had a similar supply. The first water that came out of it is in a bottle at the Memorial Hall.
The exhibition at Narooma Lighthouse Museum runs until 9 October.
