At the turn of the century in 1900, Kempsey was little known, a Sydney journalist wrote, having no connection with the national rail system.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
From Sydney , it could be reached by travelling via rail as far as Hexham, then by coach to Armidale then over the Great Dividing Range, taking three days to travel the 311 miles (500 kilometres).
By sea, Kempsey was 250 miles (400 kilometres) and the sea trip took little over a day or two and was not without its dangers.
One of the main exponents of the latter mode of transport was the North Coast Steam Navigation Company, which in some form or other carried on for around 100 years. It would be intimately associated with the growth and development of the North Coast.
Originally known as the Grafton Steam Navigation Company, it was formed on the Clarence River in 1857 when most of the River was served by sailing vessels.
A few years after, the company expanded its business into the Richmond River becoming the Clarence and Richmond Steam Navigation Company. Two ships from this era were the Agnes Irving and the Ballina.
The Agnes Irving was one of the most successful boats ever run on the North Coast waters and saw many years service before being wrecked on the Macleay River.
As the company's fleet increased, it acquired several competing interests and was soon trading on the Nambucca, Macleay, Hastings and Manning Rivers and in 1888 it was reformed as the North Coast Steam Navigation Company.
One of the company's most popular ships trading to the Macleay was the Burrawong, skippered by the jovial Captain Richard Taplin.
Around 1900, Marjorie Hart accompanied her parents as a two-year-old-girl to Kempsey and described her impressions of the Burrawong as follows:
"The first stage in this new life was to find myself on the S. S. "Burrawong" - a fascinating new world of unsteady floors, electric lights, gleaming brass and snow white decks, and the amazing lord of this new world - Captain Taplin.
He was a very little man with the largest tummy that I had ever seen. A genial man with his few passengers and a martinet where the crew was concerned."
In the early 1900's the North Coast SN Company not only had a fleet of thirty coastal vessels, but also carried an extensive fleet of droghers on the northern rivers.
The Company kept pace with the rapid growth of the North Coast despite road and rail competition and in its heyday was one of the largest intrastate fleets in Australasia.
Eventually, competition with rail transport and Government neglect of shipping channels were blamed for its decline and in the 1940's the Macleay River became the last river to be closed to shipping.
After the shoaling of the Macleay River following the 1949 and 1950 floods, the boats could not proceed any further up the river than Smithtown.
Trade continued to there until June 1954 when the company went into voluntary liquidation and sold all its ships.
More from Phil Lee: Photos from the Angus McNeil collection at Kempsey Museum
