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The mountain range by which Illawarra is shut in, partakes of the general fertility of the neighbourhood below, and it is supposed, from its eastern aspect, and mild climate, to offer spots favourable for the cultivation of the vine. The timber of the district is very profitable, when felled, and highly ornamental where it is left standing.
Another beautiful species met with in the low grounds of Illawarra, is the fan palm, or cabbage tree, and another equally graceful in its outline, is called by the natives Bangalo. The nettle tree, which is also met with in the bushes, is not only seen by the traveller, but occasionally felt, and remembered, for its name is highly descriptive.
The following appeared in the Zoological Society Bulletin, for January, 1909, from Richard Walter Tomalin, of Sydney, N.S.W.: "In the subdistricts of Robertson and Kangaloon in the Illawarra district of New South Wales, what ten years ago was a waving mass of English cocksfoot and rye grass, which had been put in gradually as the dense vine scrub was felled and burnt off, is now a barren desert, and nine families out of every ten which were renting properties have been compelled to leave the district and take up other lands.
An instance is mentioned by Captain Grey of an overlander who arrived at Adelaide in March 1840 from Illawarra, and his stock at the end of his journey is reckoned up, and found at a moderate computation to be worth no less than 13,845l.
Strings of tourist trains running over the Blue Mountains and the Great Zigzag, and up the coast to Gosford and Brisbane Water, and down the south coast to beautiful Illawarra, until after New Year. Hundreds of young fellows going out with tents to fish in lonely bays or shoot in the mountains, and rough it properly like bushmen not with deck chairs, crockery, a piano and servants.
The district called Illawarra, or the Five Islands, and that of the Cow Pastures, are the most remarkable; and being both of them rural districts, they may be briefly described here.
Respecting the Cow Pastures, the rural district, which, next to Illawarra, is most deserving of notice in the county of Camden, little further need be added to what has been already stated in another place.
"The boss must have been off his head to give fifteen notes for such a cow." M'Gregor heard this complaint. "Verra weel, Mr. Billy," said he, hotly, "ye can juist tak' ane of the young horrses in yon paddock, an' if he bucks wi' ye an' kills ye, it's yer ain fault. Ye're a cattleman so ye say dommed if ah believe it. Ah believe ye're a dairy-farmin' body frae Illawarra.
To the north a long chain of lofty rugged cliffs mark the bearing of the shore in that direction, and turning southwards, the spectator beholds, seven or eight miles distant, the spacious harbour of Botany Bay, beyond which a high bluff range of hills extends along to the south in the direction towards Illawarra.
Illawarra is a very peculiar spot: it is situated immediately between the sea and a range of high hills, so steep that they are almost impassable, while on the remaining side, upon which neither of these two boundaries enclose it, Illawarra is bounded by the Shoal Haven River.
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