It may seem hard to picture now but the Nambucca River's shores were once an important shipbuilding centre.
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The water's edge housed logs that were placed to support the keels of ships as they were being built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Some of these supports can still be seen along the riverfront at Wellington Drive in Nambucca Heads.
The main attraction to build would have been the access to the local hardwood timber, with most of the timber for the ships cut in sawpits on site. Sawmills were to follow later.
John Campbell Stuart was born in Scotland and worked his way to the colony as a ship's carpenter in about 1852.
He soon established his shipbuilding credentials at Balmain in the 1850s and married Harriet Russ in Sydney in 1857. He built ships at Parramatta, Balmain, the Hawkesbury River and later Stuarts Point, which bears his name.
By 1865 he was on the Macleay where he built steamers, although he had a love of building larger sailing ships which may have prompted his move to the Nambucca.
His first ship built at Nambucca was named the Royal Tar. Tar at the time was an informal name for seaman and Royal Tar expressed the idea of Britannia ruling the waves.
William Marshall, a sea captain and engineer, commissioned the building of the barque of 598 tons and about 170 feet long, or nearly 52 metres. It was then the largest and possibly one of the fastest ever colonial built vessels.
The scale and challenge of the enterprise were all at Marshall's risk but this was minimised by choosing a shipwright of proven skill.
Stuart chose "a little cove" on the inner harbour of the fledgling Nambucca Heads for building. The collection and sawing of timber were mammoth tasks.
As many as 40 men were involved. They used bloodwood and bluegum timber and the ship was copper bottomed and copper fastened.
Stuart likely brought tradesmen to the Nambucca and used local timber-getters and sawyers. Many of the shipwrights were illiterate. There were no drawn up plans for the vessel construction. The builders worked from models, made by Stuart, which have been held to be works of art in themselves.
The building of the Royal Tar was a great advertisement for the Nambucca and attracted outside entrepreneurs like Jabez Buckman, the owner of the first sawmill in 1878, followed by the Davis family who were shipwrights and John Eichmann, shipwright and sawmill owner.
When the Royal Tar was launched, circa 1873, a huge and enthusiastic crowd gathered to watch but she ran into difficulties due to size and the low level of water on the bar.
This was overcome by lashing empty casks and tanks to the hull. The ship, with slight damage, then moved into deeper waters.
The ship was engaged in the lumber trade with the U.S.A. and brought cargoes to Sydney. In 1893 the vessel was sold to William Lane, who, with a crew and passengers of 241, set out to found a 'Utopian Settlement" in Paraguay.
After a change in ownership and a varied international career the Royal Tar was eventually wrecked off the coast of New Zealand in 1901.
When Stuart first arrived at the Nambucca with his family they settled near the mouth of the river on an island which has been known ever since as Stuart Island.
He died in 1885 and is buried at the Blackbutt Cemetery. This cemetery is located on Spalding's Road, Congarrinni, about 5 klm from Macksville. Approximately 46 of the Valley's earliest European pioneers are buried there.
- This article used the resources of the Nambucca Headland Museum. The museum is open from 2pm to 4 pm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
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