What's new at Nelligen?: 2012

Monday, June 25, 2012

What's old at Nelligen

Unveiling of the War Memorial in 1921

Trucks loading up with goods which had arrived by steamship at the Nelligen I.S.N.Co. Depot, to be taken to Braidwood and Araluen

The Clyde Road, now known as the Kings Highway, just past the Steampacket Hotel along Nelligen Creek

Ferry in front of old Steampacket Hotel

Ferries taken from eastern side; old Steampacket Hotel in background

Ferry, taken from eastern side

Last trip of the ferry at 11 a.m. on 12th December 1964 when the bridge was opened

Monday, May 14, 2012

Welcome to NELLIGEN INDUSTRIAL ESTATE

Don't bother to find a word for it: there isn't one!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

A certain Nelligen butcher had a wife by the name of Nell. Apparently, he did away with her and threw the body in the river. From time to time it would float to the surface prompting locals to exclaim, “Here comes Nell again”.

This is NOT the official version of how Nelligen got its name but it's as good as all the others because mystery still surrounds the origins of the town’s name. Colonial government policy at the time was to adopt aboriginal place names where possible. With no indigenous written language, however, European translation of aboriginal locality references was approximate at best.

“Nelligen” may be a corruption of an aboriginal term relating to its locality description, its function, a person, or perhaps of a dreamtime event. In the early years the town and its fresh water creek were spelt at different times: Nellican and Nellikeng.

Friday, February 24, 2012

The first $1million-plus sale in Nelligen

We've had several sales in Sproxton Lane just a touch below the $1million-mark in the past; this week we've broken through the $1million-mark with the sale of # 5 Sproxton Lane at $1.2million. Congratulations, Jack and Pam!

Jack & Pam's 3-bedroom/1 bathroom house sits on a 1771 square-metre block of land. Two more properties of similar size are still for sale in the Lane at $1.39million and $1.95million respectively.

And then there is the best of them all, "Riverbend", a large 2-storey brick residence sitting on 29,200 square metres of absolute waterfront land. That's 18 times the average block size in Sproxton Lane! And yet it's on sale for just $2million!

Form an orderly queue, please!

Greetings from Nelligen

Prestige Nelligen
Property for sale

Click here

or click here to view and print the brochure

This occasional blog tells you a little about Nelligen, a tiny town on the banks of the Clyde River just 8 km as the crow flies from Batemans Bay
(in fact, it's so tiny we don't have a town drunk so we all take turns).

Most travellers speed across the modern bridge that spans the Clyde River and fifteen minutes later reach Batemans Bay. Before 1964 they would have joined the long queue of vehicles waiting to be ferried across on the punt. 30,000 vehicles used the punts at Nelligen in 1963, the year before the bridge opened.

But a lot has changed at Nelligen. In its heydays Nelligen was a busy seaport and coastal town. The village was laid out in 1854 when the Illawarra Steam Navigation Co (ISN) began operating here.

Nelligen became a depot for supplies brought down the coast from Sydney and up the Clyde River by the ISN. From here they were transported mostly to Braidwood and the neighbouring goldfields.

By 1860 fine hundred horses and nearly as many bullocks were carrying the trade between Nelligen and Braidwood. By that time the village boasted four public houses, two stores, two blacksmiths, a baker and a watchhouse manned by two policemen.

Today Nelligen is a quiet little backwater, but still fulfilling the role of a rest stop for the traveller as it has done since the "road" via the Clyde Mountain was opened in 1856.

It is a picturesque little town, nestled as it is on the banks of the slow-flowing Clyde River. Nelligen has an air of history and old-time charm about it, remaining untainted by the progressive developments down the road at Batemans Bay.