Stinker’s History: The origins of Fame Cove

FAME Cove was named after the supply and trading vessel “Fame”, a brig that used the cove for shelter while supporting the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) at Carrington.

The 139 ton brig was sailed by Captain William Cromarty in the 1820s and 1830s.

He sailed far and wide in Australian waters, including to Tasmania.

Some of his trips included the coastal run between Sydney and the headquarters of the AACo at Carrington and later Stroud.

The name most closely associated with early settlement and pioneering is that of William Cromarty, a native of the Orkney Islands.

He rose at an early age to the rank of captain in the mercantile marine and became one of the most daring and skilful of the band of navigators who sailed the seven oceans.

During the Napoleonic wars, heavy fighting occurred in India, and he had been commissioned to sail out troops and provisions via the Cape.

When British troops won the battle of Mehudpore in 1817, Captain Cromarty subsequently made several voyages to New South Wales with provisions and stores for the military as owner and master of the ship “The Sovereign”.

Attracted by the natural advantages of the new colony, he retired from deep sea navigation, received a grant of land at Hunter’s River and brought his wife and family from the “Old Country”.

Shortly afterwards, however, he became convinced that the land on the north shore of Port Stephens was far more valuable and that the anchorage was superior to anything Hunter’s River could provide.

Accordingly, a transfer of the grant was made to land situated on the Karuah River, close to where the Booral wharf was later erected.

Captain Cromarty became the first squatter in the Port Stephens district.

Sadly on 1 September 1939, Captain Cromarty and his eldest son William, along with an assigned servant and a local Aboriginal, disappeared off One Mile Beach while attempting to retrieve a lifeboat that had washed ashore from the Steamer King William during a gale.

The pioneering Cromarty family have remained in Port Stephens and are well respected members of the local community.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE