The stone ships delivering basalt stone and aggregate from the Kiama quarry were typically small ships, and their trips short – around 51 nautical miles to deliver from Kiama to Sydney. The Birchgrove Park (a former ‘sixty-miler’ coal ship) was one exception at 640 tons. The last purpose-built ship, the Kiama, a steel ship, was 358 tons. The Bombo (see below) was some 602 tons.
Where the ships of the Illawarra coast further north had to contend with rough seas and encounters with other traffic, the ships of the stone fleet had in addition to contend with another source of danger – the potential for loads to shift in rough seas, or when a sailing ship heeled sharply. Clark lists some eighteen sinkings, many with loss of life, including one of the best known and most recent– the Bombo, which went down near Port Kembla in a storm in 1949, with the loss of ten men. The loss of life over the years in the stone trade was very significant.
| Northern Light | March 1878 |
| Bertha | September 1879 |
| Franz | September 1879 |
| Gosford Packet | 1881 |
| Prima Donna | 1882 |
| Pioneer | 1883 |
| Merchantman | 1883 |
| Nile | February 1883 |
| Annie Powell | 1886 |
| Ino | 1889 |
| Scotia | 1889 |
| Resolute | 1894 |
| Kelloe | 1902 (in collision with Dunmore) |
| Resolute | 1907 (different ship to above in 1894) |
| Kiltobanks | 1923 |
| Annie M. Miller | 1929 |
| Belbowrie | 1939 |
| Bombo | February 1949 |
| Data from Jack Clark “Blue Diamond Trade” Accessed 260417 at http://www.uniteddivers.com.au/blue%20diamonds.htm and others |
A Hero Ship: the Bombo
The Bombo was built in 1930 for the stone trade, but during World War 2 was requisitioned by the Royal Australian Navy for military use. It operated first as a minesweeper, between Sydney and Hobart. Later in the war, it served in Darwin and other parts of northern Australia, and also was involved in the occupation of Timor by Australian troops. Given the risk to which it was exposed at that time, it was a sad irony that it (and ten of its crew) met their end off Port Kembla, not far from its home port, when its load of stone shifted after being hit by a large wave.
Credit: Australian War Memorial, Canberra.