Finding the route In 1831, Robert Futter of
Bungonia and George Galbraith of Nerriga formed an expedition to find a path from Nerriga to Jervis Bay. The others making up the expedition were
William Ryrie,
James Holman—who was known as the 'Blind Traveller'—and two Aboriginal guides whose names are not known. Holman later recounted—in his book ''‘A Voyage Round The World: Including Travels In Africa, Asia, Australia, America Etc. From 1827 - 1832' ,'' published in 1834-1835 —that the route they had taken from Yerock Flat (west of Sassafras Mountain) to the coast was taken against the advice of the Aboriginal guides, who had strongly suggested following the range further to the north. Holman later recognised that had they done so they could have found a far easier route for a road to Jervis Bay
Proponents After at first failing to obtain government funding for such a road in 1839, landholders from around Braidwood and Nerriga decided to fund and build their own road from Nerriga to Jervis Bay. The principal advocates and financial backers for the new road were
John Mackenzie of Nerriga and
Dr. Thomas Braidwood Wilson of Braidwood. Others on the committee advocating the road were landholders
Terence Aubrey Murray and the Ryrie family (
William Ryrie, his brother
Stewart Ryrie Jr, and their father
Stewart Ryrie). Wealthy and influential colonists
Alexander Berry,
Robert Campbell,
Thomas Walker and
James Macarthur were also supporters of the new road. but it was not suitable for agriculture. Explorer and surveyor,
John Oxley, had said of the land on the western shore, in 1819, "
We saw no place on which even a Cabbage might be planted with a prospect of success" and that "
perhaps a more miserable sterile Country was never traversed by man". However, an east-facing point—now known as Plantation Point—provided shelter from the south and a safe port—the 'Inner Harbour'—and there was enough land on which a port township could be situated. In June 1841, another fourteen men, to work on the road, arrived at the new port of South Huskisson aboard the steamer
Tamar. The Bulee Gap was created by blasting away a narrow neck of sandstone rock to bring the road onto the plateau of the Pigeon House Range. Blasting was also needed to create a pass for the descent through the Wandean Gap. The Wool Road covered a distance of approximately 37 miles (60 km) and it was built at an estimated cost of £997. The road from Nerriga to Jervis Bay, The Wool Road, was completed in October 1841.—was substantially upgraded, also using convict labour assigned to John Mackenzie. By late 1842, there was a road capable of taking wheeled traffic to Jervis Bay from Braidwood and beyond.
Heyday South Huskisson—a port on Jervis Bay As the roadwork neared completion there was optimism about the future. In June 1841, it was predicted that, with the completion of the road to Kurraducbidgee (Arnprior), "
at least half the wool now exported from Sydney, will in a few years be shipped at Jervis Bay" The first cargo of wool from Nerriga was carried over The Wool Road and loaded at South Huskisson in late 1841; it was sent from Nerriga by John Mackenzie, who also shipped his wheat crop using the port in 1842.—a wharf was built during late 1842. The auxiliary steamship
Sophia Jane made her first trip to the port of South Huskisson in June 1841 and provided a monthly and at times twice monthly service between the port and Sydney. The
barque Cygnet visited the port in December 1842 to load a cargo of wool for London. The town of South Huskisson grew around the port, located on land granted in 1830 to
Edward Deas Thompson. A wool store capable of storing 2,000
bales of wool and an inn were built. At least 200 building allotments in the private township were sold during 1841, at high prices on an assumption of the success of the road and port, and in anticipation of large future capital gains. The total of the prices of the 100 allotments sold in June 1841 was £3,519.
Planned roadside townships Five 'townships' were planned along road from Braidwood to Jervis Bay. Two of these,
Larbert and
Marlow, were to be between Braidwood and Nerriga; Larbert was at the Shoalhaven crossing, near the Arnprior homestead and Marlow was to be at the crossing of the
Mongalowe River. The settlement to be known as 'Narriga' was to be located at the road's crossing point on the Endrick River, some distance further east and at a lower elevation than the modern-day village of Nerriga. Tianjara was to be near Tianjara Falls. Farnham was to be at 'Jerrawongola' (
Jerrawangala), near Wandandian Creek, after the descent to the coastal plain (in a part of the modern day Parish of Farnham). In addition, it seems that reserves were envisaged at other points along the road, where the bullock teams could be rested. A year later, in January 1843, an article in the
Sydney Morning Herald stated that,
"The township, the wharf, and the road, have all still to contend against the evil reports which have been so industriously circulated respecting them by interested parties". There was some factual basis for such negative views. Geographic and economic difficulties affected The Wool Road and these, rather than the 'evil reports', caused it to fall into disuse after a relatively short time. The steep descent proved a problem for the cumbersome
bullock drays of the day. Although the distance was short, the slowness of the fully laden bullock drays descending the steep route led to ships being delayed at Jervis Bay and on at least one occasion leaving without taking on a cargo there. With hindsight, the route of The Wool Road via the Wandean Gap had been a poor choice; far better routes for roads over the coastal escarpment would be found later. The truth about the road—and the country through which it ran—was very much contrary to the apparently exaggerated claims that had been made, when town allotments in South Huskisson had been sold for high prices in 1841.—and the nearby area of volcanic soil around
Sassafras. Fodder had to be carried. Water was also limited. The planned villages along the route did not eventuate, although at least one map was still showing them in 1907. The wharf at South Huskisson, although viable, was small when compared to the numerous wharves of Sydney Harbour. The Wool Road was used for wool grown around Nerriga and Braidwood but it proved to be impractical for those places further away, like
Yarralumla and the
Monaro beyond. As a result, some of those who had supported the building of the road, such as Terence Aubrey Murray, did not use it once it was completed. In late 1843, it was advertised that wool could be shipped to Sydney from the new port of
Boydtown on
Twofold Bay. Although in time the port of Boydtown too would be a failure, it was in competition for wool cargoes with the port of South Huskisson, and it lay much closer by land to the Monaro. The absence of wool cargoes from the outer areas meant that the volume of wool shipped via The Wool Road and its port was much less than had been expected. In 1842, after the road was completed, Terence Aubrey Murray and others, including Major
William Sandys Elrington and Captain
William Oldrey, attempted to raise subscription funding for a rival private road, from
Bellalaba to the port of
Broulee, that was not built. Such a road would have connected the area south of Braidwood, and perhaps as far away as
Queanbeyan and the
Limestone Plains, to a rival seaport on the coast. The road needed regular maintenance work and repair, especially after wet weather, to keep it open. Money became short when New South Wales entered an
economic depression in the 1840s. The causes of the depression were complex; it was probably triggered by a lengthy drought in the period 1839–1841.—which reduced wool production Being privately owned, the port and The Wool Road received no assistance from the government. A petition was made in October 1843 to recoup from the government a quarter of the £2400 in debts that had been incurred to build the road and quay to that date. This may indicate that the backers of the road and port were already in financial difficulty. Two main backers of the road and port, John Mackenzie of Nerriga and
Dr. Thomas Wilson of Braidwood, were ruined financially as a result of the 1840s depression, Wilson died in November 1843—
probably by his own hand—leaving debts of £15,264 with a deficiency of £14,439, colossal sums at that time. Mackenzie was bankrupt in 1849, and all his land at Nerriga was sold in 1851. By 1853, he was reduced to asking permission to live in a house in South Huskisson belonging to
Edward Deas Thompson. but the port more typically was serviced by coastal steamers. Any wool carried by these steamers needed to be transshipped for export at Sydney. Shipping operators were only interested in servicing Jervis Bay, if the trade was profitable. The first wool auction in Sydney was held by
T.S. Mort in 1843 Soon afterwards,
Samuel Lyons and other Sydney auctioneers also entered the wool auction business, and the practice rapidly became widespread. The introduction of the
wool auction system—and the better prices that could be obtained—had the result of increasing the dominance of Sydney as the export port for wool, because the wool had to be sent first to Sydney to be auctioned. The
Sophia Jane was still calling at Jervis Bay in early June 1844 but in mid-June it went only as far as
Wollongong, and after that seems to have been on the run to
Morpeth. Although small coastal ships still visited the port, the days of South Huskisson as a major port had ended and no more wool was loaded there after December 1843. The steep part of The Wool Road, passing through the Wandean Gap and on to Wandandian, fell into disuse and became overgrown in parts, as early as 1848. In 1854, the road to Jervis Bay—The Wool Road—was described as being in a state of "
total abandonment". The last portion of the road from Wandandian to South Huskisson (now Vincentia) seemed to remain in local use but only in parts, as private roads and tracks across private land. The decline of the port town was rapid. South Huskisson was described by a visitor in 1851 as a
"village on a small scale". and of its buildings it was said that
"some of them still stand". The town allotments in the private township of South Huskisson—and the nearby 'government town' of Huskisson—essentially had become worthless, by the mid-1850s. By 1867, South Huskisson was deserted—any buildings were just ruins by 1885—and, by the early 1930s, all that remained of 'the old township' was a solitary
Norfolk Island Pine. == Realignment and alternative routes ==