The original Kinghorne, Alexander was a widower when he left his native Scotland in 1824 with his three daughters and two younger sons.

Already in Australia were his eldest son James, a surveyor with Governor Brisbane in NSW, and his second son, William of the Royal Navy who had command of the brig Cypress that was trading between Sydney and Hobart Town.

For a time Alexander was in charge of the prison farm at Emu Plains, and by 1828 when he was living at Liverpool, he had become a magistrate.

During that year he took up a grant of 2000 acres in the Wollondilly district that he named Cardross, and put his son Ken in charge of the sheep, cattle and convict labour.

Another son, Alexander jnr, built a flour mill at Cardross and he would have similar enterprises at Liverpool and Bathurst in the coming years.

The Kinghorne family also acquired land at Boorowa, Bathurst, an island off Tasmania and a property called Mount Jervis on the north-eastern side of Jervis Bay where Alexander intended to settle permanently.

According to family legend, "The view was magnificent, the natives friendly, and the providors of fish aplenty, and for a time [son] William conducted a whaling station there; this was not very difficult as there were plenty of whales in the bay".

The whaling facility was apparently well known, for a land sale at Jervis Town advertised in November 1841 mentioned its proximity to "Captain Kinghorne's whaling station".

Alexander made a trip back to Scotland, where he became ill and died without returning to Australia.

The severe drought of the 1840s also affected the remaining Kinghorne family members, and they settled in other parts of the state.

For generations, Shoalhaven residents spelt Kinghorne Street without the "e", but Shoalhaven City Council eventually went back to the source and adopted the original spelling.

However Kinghorn Point between Culburra and Currarong retains the old spelling - long ago gazetted by either the Geographical Names Board or its predecessor.

Few people would know that the Kinghorne Estate on the northern shores of Jervis Bay was one of the last parcels of land to be sold by trustees of the Coolangatta Estate after the death of the Berry brothers and Sir John Hay.

In May 1915 local auctioneers Stewart & Morton sold the Kinghorne and Wollumboola estates to a private syndicate which was intending to subdivide them.

Land in the area was becoming very popular at that time, for the previous month the Killarney Estate (between St Georges Basin and Jervis Bay) had been auctioned in Sydney.

Some 200 people attended the auction and paid between £12 and £121 for the 72 allotments, with the water frontage blocks bringing around £54 apiece.