Berry

History

Before British colonisation, several clans of Dharawal speaking Aboriginal Australians resided in the region, the present descendants of whom are now called the Jerrinja. The area was originally known as Boon-ga-ree. In the 1810s, George William Evans, Government Surveyor, reported that the district could serve as a possible settlement and that there were good stands of red cedar. Subsequently, itinerant timber cutters visited to cut and send cedar to Sydney. Alexander Berry, with his business partner Edward Wollstonecraft, pioneered British settlement in the Shoalhaven region from 1822, initially securing land grants to the south of the Shoalhaven River and later to the north (including the Berry district). From 1825, the locality became a private town known as Broughton Creek, part of the large pastoral holding called the Coolangatta Estate owned by Berry and Wollstonecraft. Berry had named it after Broughton, a local Indigenous man who assisted him in establishing the estate. Broughton, in turn, had been named by Charles Throsby, likely after settler William Broughton (Throsby's father-in-law). whom Alexander Berry had rescued in New Zealand after locals murdered and cannibalised most of the ship Boyd's crew. The first British settlers of this locality were free and convict sawyers employed by Berry, who camped there in 1825. Soon after a tannery began operation. In the 1840s a saw mill powered by a water wheel started. By 1866, a very substantial town had grown on the either side of Broughton Creek. On the Pulman Street side, a post office, school, tannery and store were established, while on the other side of the creek an inn was opened. By this time the population had grown to 300 and the area was declared a Municipality. In 1873 Alexander Berry died and…

Most-observed species

• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  9,341
• Australian Raven

  Corvus coronoides Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  8,084
• Magpie-lark

  Grallina cyanoleuca (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  7,079
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  6,860
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  6,525
• Gray Fantail

  Rhipidura albiscapa Gould, 1840 · Aves
  6,089
• Crimson Rosella

  Platycercus elegans (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  5,655
• Laughing Kookaburra

  Dacelo novaeguineae (Hermann, 1783) · Aves
  5,447

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2025-05-28
  3 km WNW of Cobbitty, Australia
• M 3 — 2007-08-22
  24 km W of Oakdale, Australia
• M 3.2 — 2007-08-18
  10 km NW of Mittagong, Australia
• M 2.6 — 2007-08-18
  11 km NW of Mittagong, Australia
• M 3.1 — 2007-04-11
  3 km SE of Stanwell Park, Australia
• M 3 — 2006-06-18
  8 km W of Oakdale, Australia