Dapto - History

Land grants

Parish of Kembla

Parish of Calderwood

(McDonald, W.G. 1976)

Early residents

Richard Brooks and "Exmouth"

Richard Brooks was one of the first five land grantees in the Illawarra. Governor Macquarie gave a grant of 1300 acres to him on January 17, 1817. The property was named "Exmouth". Local aboriginal people also knew the property as "Koonawarra".

George Johnston (senior) and "Macquarie Gift"

George Johnston received a grant of 1500 acres on the 24th January 1817. The property known as "Macquarie Gift" was located just on the Dapto side of Marshall Mount and ran north-west from Macquarie Rivulet.

George Johnston was born at Annandale, Dumfriesshire, Scotland in 1764. He joined the marines in England in 1776. In 1786 he joined a detachment to form a garrison, under Captain Phillip at Botany Bay. During 1800 he became involved in the infamous Rum Rebellion and was shipped back to England to be court martialled. "They took his buttons off and took his stripes away, but instead of hanging Colonel Johnston in the morning they contented themselves with cashiering him." (McDonald 1976) He was then returned to New South Wales.

Governor Macquarie had a policy at the time to confer benefits and favours on reformed characters. In his latter years George Johnston became a pillar of law and order and thus became one of his beneficiaries.

Henry and Sarah Osborne and "Marshall Mount"

Henry Osborne was a wealthy Irish immigrant to whom the government granted 2560 acres in the Dapto district in 1829. He named the property "Marshall Mount" after his wife Sarah’s maiden name. By the 1840s he had added to his estate by securing Charles Throsby Smith’s "Calderwood", Elyard’s "Avondale", William Browne’s "Athanlin", Brook’s "Exmouth" and numerous smaller grants.

The Osbornes had become one of the most powerful families in the region. Henry and Sarah initially settled at "Marshall Mount" in Pumpkin Cottage under fairly primitive conditions. Later Osborne recruited skilled labour to build Marshall Mount House.

In 1851 Henry Osborne entered politics, he was elected to the Legislative Council as member for East Camden, and represented his constituency in the first Legislative Assembly. (McDonald, 1976; Dowd, B.T. , 1960; Hagan, 1997.)

Early industry

After an unsuccessful attempt at wheat growing in the 1850s, Dapto embraced the dairy industry. Henry Osborne had a good herd of cattle in the 1840s and was one of the aristocracy of early dairying in the Illawarra.

Judge McFarland, in "Illawarra and Monaro" described dairy farming as practised in the 1870s at Dapto and Avondale as being better than the standard practised in the rest of the Illawarra. The farms were described as cultivated and properly cared for and managed, the fences good, the pasturage excellent and the homesteads trim and orderly.

In 1887 the railway opened and a butter factory was established. The Country Milk Company sent down two separators for the factory. A milk depot adjoining Dapto station was built three years later and the cream was separated and sent to Sydney. By the beginning of 1892 there were up to two milk trains daily.

The opening of the Illawarra Railway began to transform Dapto. The town centre shifted south to where the new station was located between the two old township centres. The new town attracted services and businesses from both the old centres.

By the time the railway was opened the Smelting Company of Australia Ltd. was formed. With backing from overseas capital, it established a large smelting works in Dapto. The annual report of the Engineering Association of New South Wales in 1897 makes reference to the Dapto Smelting Works. "It refers to three large floors each capable of holding 4000 tons of ore. Two copper blast furnaces were being erected….Telephonic communication had been installed as was also electric light – the works being the first in Australia to enjoy the latter amenity." (The Old Dapto Smelting Works. Illawarra Historical Society. Wollongong. 1950)

The works were in full operation by 1899 and were prosperous for the next few years. They treated lead, silver, zinc, copper and gold from Broken Hill, Zeehan, Mount Morgan and Western Australia. At one stage the smelting works employed 500 men.

In 1905 the works closed due to a lack of ore from Western Australia. The company was reconstructed and began to shift its works to Port Kembla the next year. (McDonald, 1976; Cousins. 1994; The Old Dapto Smelting Works. Illawarra Historical Society)

Early transport

Dapto township was transformed by the arrival of the railway. On the 9th November 1887 the section of rail from Wollongong to North Kiama was opened and with it Dapto station.

The station was located away from the crossing of Mullet Creek as the ground was considered too low, swampy and subject to flooding. It was set up on firmer ground to the south between the two old township centres.

A new town grew up around the station. A right of way, which was used for cattle, was transformed into Bong Bong Street and it was extended west to link up with the older Bong Bong Road from Brownsville to the pass.

The first Wollongong to Dapto road was described in 1894. "It then ran through Wyllie’s flats till it crossed Mullet Creek by a ford…From Mullet Creek to Macquarie River the old track and the present Main South Coast Road are practically the same, the duck holes that were there then being there still. The West Dapto Road branched off the old Dapto Road where Kembla Grange station now stands, and ran through the veterans’ grants." (McDonald,  1976.)