The original name of Narooma was Noorooma which was not a town but a huge land holding while the first centre of activity was Wagonga.
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So Helen Ryan of the Narooma Historical Society introduced her talk at Narooma Library on Wednesday, August 9.
In 1835 Francis Hunt established a run from the southern side of Wagonga Inlet to Corunna Lake and named it Wagonga Station with the aim of establishing agriculture.
He sold the property to Thomas Forster and his wife in 1848.
They added more land so that the property extended to Wallaga Lake and renamed it Noorooma.
The Forsters got their supplies by ship once a year although there was no refrigeration.
The NSW government passed the Robertson Crown Lands Act in 1861 because squatters were taking too much land.
The Forster's holding was dramatically reduced to 3000 acres, allowing an influx of people to the area.
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Ms Ryan said it was difficult to settle the south east because the only access was by ship.
"There was very thick forest up to Nowra, no roads and many of the inlets were dangerous and crossing the bar was dicey," Ms Ryan said.
In those early days smaller sailing ships could get up Wagonga Inlet as far as Punkally Creek.
"The actual main settlement apart from those farms was at Wagonga and it was the main settlement until about the 1870s," Ms Ryan said.
In 1860 gold was discovered on what they then called Mount Dromedary.
"The ships would drop off people at Wagonga and they would trudge off overland to Tilba."
In 1862 the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company began arriving to transport people.
There was regular shipping to Wagonga until 1882 when gold was discovered at Kianga.
"That encouraged prospectors to come and there was a little gold rush.
"Whenever something like that happened some people stayed," Ms Ryan said.
Around that time a saw mill was built and Tom Fuller had a wharf and erected a big shed.
It was responsible for bringing goods in and taking timber to Sydney.
"That was when Narooma on the southern head of Wagonga started to develop and became known as Noorooma.
"With the advent of steamers coming to Noorooma and the demise of gold, so began the demise of Wagonga as people started to move further towards the heads," Ms Ryan said.
By 1888 Noorooma had a hotel where O'Briens is today.
Most of Wagonga burnt down in a fire in 1919.
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