CHAPTER 3/ 9
BY OCEAN, ROAD OR RAIL
The Coomonderry at Berry Wharf. When the ISCSN Co bought out the Moruya Steam Navigation Company in November 1905, the deal included the vessel and its popular Master, Captain Canty.
Image by S. Cocks, courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW Collection.
Founded in 1858 as the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company (ISN Co), the enterprise was incorporated in 1904, becoming the Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company (ISCSN Co) but little changed other than the name. By 1905, the vessels were the essential tie in the network connecting various local ports, not only with each other but through Sydney, to Launceston and Hobart in Tasmania, New Zealand, and the rest of the world.
Through the practice of negotiating with or taking over rivals, the ISN Co continued to dominate trade along the south coast. In 1892, Moruya Steam Navigation Company was set up in competition to the ISN Co and thrived for more than a decade until the larger firm brought them out in 1905. Around the same time, litigation forced the Shellharbour Steam Navigation into voluntary liquidation, the Illawarra company purchasing its vessel Peterborough and goodwill.
As the region was one of the last on the NSW coast to experience growth in road and rail travel, ISCSN Co was able to carry on where others had been forced into closure. However, the railway to the Illawarra and tablelands continued ever further south, while constantly improving technology saw more roads carved out of the countryside and a growing number of motor vehicles using them.
Although the company operated after WWII, several factors combined to bring about its demise. The expanding road network offered door-to-door service, while railways entered into exclusive agreements with various hotels, taking contracts away from the shipping line. Along with waterfront disputes, rising costs and the post war expense of replacing ships, the writing was on the wall.
In 1948, for the first time in the company’s history, no dividends were paid. Then, at the 1951 shareholders’ meeting the directors recommended voluntary liquidation and the firm was placed into receivership. After assets were sold, investors received a return of 41/- in the pound. Captain Miles had the sad duty of lifting moorings from the various ports and returning gear back to Sydney when the service folded.
The oldest NSW steamship line, the ISCSN Co had been a constant and essential presence in the region for almost a century. In 1955, it was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange, closing the book on one of the most influential eras of maritime history on the NSW south coast. With it ended a fine tradition of service that had survived two world wars, economic depressions, storms, and shipwrecks. It was the end of an era for the people and places for whom the Illawarra company had been a lifeline for so long.
Wollongong’s Belmore Basin under construction, circa 1860s.
Image courtesy of the NSW State Archives and Records Collection.
From the Illawarra and South Coast Steam Navigation Company’s Illustrated Handbook, 1905.
Image courtesy of the George Family Collection.
Captain Miles, who was charged with the heart-rending task of collecting equipment from the various south coast ports after the ISCSN Co was wound up.
Image courtesy of Annette Evelyn.