History of

Broughton Vale Tramway
Australia has long had a history of small bush industries,and so it is with logging. From the early 1800s to 1900s, much of the bush from Queensland down through to Tasmania echoed to the sounds of small sawmills and loggers supplying the timber required to build the country. Near where I live, south of Sydney, New South Wales, there was once two sawmills nestled in the valley overlooked by Brogers Gorge. This area was, and still is, called Broughton Vale. The nearby township of Berry played host to two, possibly three more sawmills. During their life, from the earliest sawmillers arriving in November 1825, through to the last mills closure in 1978, all of the mills in the area used bullock teams to get the lumber out of the trees and into the mill. After being cut, the wood was then transported to either "Double Wharf" or "Hardwood Wharf", both of which were located on Broughton Creek, for the run by boat to Sydney to be sold.

Around 5 miles south of Broughton Vale/Berry is the quiet settlement of Kangaroo Valley. Broughton Vale Tramway fits into this little part of history in the following manner. After years of land clearing for farms, and the constant operation of the mills, the supplies of cedar and hardwood in Broughton Vale were depleted. The untouched timber in Kangaroo Valley was beckoning, but the then current method of hauling the timber by bullock team was not up to the task. Thus it was that one Thomas Edward Pogson, owner of the Broughton Creek Sawmill, built his Broughton Vale Tramway south along the side of the Great Dividing Range, from Broughton Vale to Kangaroo Valley.

Thanks to the staff at the Berry Museum for answering many questions about the local area during my search for a setting for Broughton Vale Tramway. Much of the information used and retold here is contained in the booklet "Historic Sites of Berry" by Mary L Lidbetter.