Gerringong

Gerringong is a town located about ten minutes drive south of Kiama in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama.

Gerringong is a town located about ten minutes drive south of Kiama in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia in the Municipality of Kiama. At the 2016 census, Gerringong had a population of 3,966. One theory says that the name derives from an Aboriginal word meaning "fearful place".

Aboriginal people of the Dharawallanguage group are the original inhabitants and traditional custodians of the area now known as Gerringong and its surroundings.The first Europeans to pass through the district on land were probably survivors of the wreck of the Sydney Cove who trekked more than 700 km along the coast, during 1797. George Bass explored the nearby coast, later in 1797, during his voyage that revealed the existence of the Shoalhaven River to the colonial settlers.

The first Europeans working in the area were red cedar cutters, who were first recorded as having visited and logged in the area in 1814. As in much of coastal New South Wales, the cleared land was used for dairy farming and cedar cutting died out, as the cedar trees disappeared. Dairy farming became the predominant primary industry and remains so to this day. Gerringong had a small boat harbour used for the export of cedar and dairy produce.The Surveyor-General John Oxley and Assistant Surveyor-General James Meehan led two separate but concurrent expeditions passing through the Gerringong area in late 1819. Oxley proceeded down the coast by sea to the Shoalhaven. Meehan went overland, starting from the Minnamurra River and meeting Oxley at the Shoalhaven. Oxley's report of good soil in the area increased interest in agricultural settlement.

In 1824, Governor Brisbane reserved 600 acres (2.4 km²) for the present Gerringong township. In 1827, Michael Hindmarsh and his family were granted 640 acres (2.6 km²) and became the first settler in the Gerringong area. In 1829, Gerringong was incorporated into the postal system.

Aboriginal people in the area of Gerringong continued to state their ownership of it—including Hindmarsh's grant—in the 1840s. By then, the settlers' clearingof the sub-tropical rainforest was transforming the landscape completely—to lush pastures suited to dairy cattle—and depriving the original inhabitants of the land, environment and land-based food sources upon which they had depended for thousands of years. Effectively barred from private land, they were confined to unalienated 'government' land.

Alne Bank homestead was built in 1851 for the Hindmarsh family, who still live there today and occasionally open it for inspection.

In 1854, a town plan for Gerringong was approved and the Governor proclaimed it a village. In 1872, the business area, Church of England church and some houses were destroyed by a bush fire.

In the late 1860s and 1870s, locals advocated the erection of a jetty at the Boatharbour. In 1880 a 200-foot-long jetty was completed but it was too short to allow coastal ships to berth. It was extended, in the mid-1880s, first by 200-feet and subsequently another 100 feet. The 500-foot-long jetty was extensively damaged in fierce storms in 1891. It was rebuilt but, during that work, was damaged again by stormy weather in 1892, necessitating more repairs. A new crane was installed in 1893. The jetty was probably used to land materials for railway construction.In 1893, the South Coast railway line was extended to Gerringong, leading to the end of shipping from the town. The disused jetty was given to the local council, for use as bridge material, around 1901. The last standing remnants of the jetty were washed away in 1904.By 1897, the dispossession was complete; local Aborigines had "dwindled to a handful" living in a camp just south-west of Gerringong, at Crooked River and another camp at 'Ooirie Creek' (now Ooarie Creek) near Omega, whose inhabitants were later relocated. The lives of the surviving Aborigines were, for many years, controlled by the Aborigines Protection Board, and the disdain of many—if not all—white inhabitants.

Telephone services were extended to Gerringong by June 1915 and electricity was connected in 1928.In 1954, Gerringong Municipal District amalgamated with Kiama Municipal Council. The town water supply was connected in 1971, signalling an end to tanks attached to each house. Land along the coastal fringe tends to receive higher rainfall than the interior water catchment areas, which are often in rainshadow. In 2002, the town sewerage system was connected.