The Bega Pioneers' Museum has countless reports and stories on local issues. This is a history of Bermagui and district researched by Bertha Davidson in 1982.
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THE Imlay brothers originally intending to concentrate on whaling around Twofold Bay, but were quick to grasp the advantages offered by the country to the north and east for grazing purposes. Many others also moved into these areas, many of them renting land from the large squatting stations. W.D. Tarlinton, for example, held all the land from the Brogo River to the Tuross, a distance of over 30 miles.
The principal activity on these large holdings was the grazing of beef cattle and, or, sheep. On each station also, especially on the alluvial flats, general crops of maize, wheat potatoes, beans and peas were cultivated. Dairy cattle for local consumption were raised. Generally the homestead was a large building with accommodation for about 20 people, and here the social activity of the district would generally centre. As trade, travel and wealth per station increased during the 1850s, hotels or inns became attached to these settlements.
The purpose for travelling was largely to ship produce away to Sydney or Van Diemens Land markets. Though the first settlers came by land, they immediately turned to the sea for their transport. At first each pastoralist chartered his own vessel, but in 1858 the Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company was chartered. This company provided the main means of exporting produce to and from the Far South Coast till 1945-1953 period. So for each agricultural and pastoral area there arose a sea-port usually consisting, at first, of a wharf and bulk store, and in some cases a shop, a hotel and a few houses. Bermagui became the port for the Cobargo district and the grazing lands around Bermagui. Boydtown, despite the dreams of Benjamin Boyd, who came to Australia in 1841, flourished only temporarily as a whaling centre, and a port for the export of Boyd’s extensive cattle holdings on the Monaro. It languished after about 1850, probably because of its comparative isolation from the rich inland pastoral areas. Eden, which was a rival to Boydtown, benefited for some time from Boydtown’s decline, but with the lessening of the whaling industry’s activities in the area, its importance as a port began to decline in the 1860s, for much the same reason as Boydtown had done.
It is of interest, too, to note that the Bega area was the scene of several gold rushes in the 1850s. Merrigundah and Merrigen were the main sites of finds, together with Araluen.