Shoalhaven The Third Progression

The Shoalhaven district of New South Wales is today (2014) two hours travelling time from Sydney and getting shorter. Back in 1822 the only access to the district was by sailing ship. Sailing ships brought settlement to the rich soils beside the Shoalhaven River and settlement carried out by the axe and horse and cart. A period of connection to the land and the earth underneath. The Shoalhaven River becoming the lifeblood of the district through transportation of locally produced produce to feed and house the growing settlement of Sydney. Shoalhaven became known as ‘The Garden of Sydney’.
It was also a period of land use reflected as The River Period. A time of romance and adventure, challenges and hardships as settlers came to grips with the land. Self-dependency and sustainability expressed through the technologies of that time.
Then in 1893, rail was connected from Sydney to Bomaderry; a village located on the northern bank of the Shoalhaven River and linked to Nowra via a recently constructed steel girder bridge. Shoalhaven residents no longer having to rely on sail or steam ships, but could travel daily to Sydney by rail. With rail came roads and the telegraph. Electricity and town gas followed. A period when villages expanded into towns such as Nowra, and employment growth through professional and administrative services and retail trading. Self-dependency to the land being gradually displaced. The district also became more dependent on Sydney for jobs, goods and services and public administration.
A period of disconnection and a second progression where Shoalhaven’s umbilical cord to Sydney was reversed in support and tethering. The sense of adventure and romanticism with the land itself gradually displaced by technologies of the day and growth in manufacturing. Towns displacing villages and Sydneysiders’ discovering the Shoalhaven as a holiday destination.
In the 1980’s another change in land use became apparent. Sydneysiders and residents of Wollongong were beginning to use the Shoalhaven as a retirement destination and place for daily and inter daily visitation. They were forging a dependency on the Shoalhaven, and in a sense a reconnection to its landscapes. Ironically, Shoalhaven’s landscapes attracted their first settlers to utilise what the landscape could offer for financial security, while the landscapes of the 1980’s brought residents seeking their untouched beauty and tranquility!
A third Progression was in play and that of recreation and retirement. Manufacturing on the wane, the growth of services expanding, and the Shoalhaven becoming a depository for those unable to afford accommodation in Sydney.
Ross sees another Progression on offer in the Shoalhaven. Dependency on Government. A progression of disconnection to the land where Shoalhaven residents rely on Government benefits, subsidies and services.
The Shoalhaven today still a place of beauty, peacefulness and tranquility and less than two hours by motor car from Sydney. Its future charted through a forged, determined, independent, and proud past of people close to the land itself, but now becoming dependent on decisions by those in present day public service.
Ross Lamond was a resident of the Shoalhaven. He grew up there and his forbearers’ settled there. Ross became attached to Shoalhaven’s soils as a farmer. Ross’s passion in caring for the land is reflected in this publication.
Shoalhaven the Third Progression is an appendix to Connections to the Earth and can be read in conjunction.