Hosting the gathering was local farmer William McGee and his wife Mary who at that time had seven children.

They entertained Mrs McGee's sister Catherine (Kate) and her husband Thomas Daley who brought their two little boys, three-year-old Michael and the younger James who was a couple of months short of his second birthday.

The Daleys were farming on Burraga Island (commonly referred to Pig Island) in the Shoalhaven River off Terara, and they travelled across in their flat-bottomed punt.

They were joined for the evening by John Flynn and John Quilkey, while Claude Bradley was with the group for a while.

The two families enjoyed a pleasant time together, and no doubt the children were put to sleep for it was 1.40am before the Daleys got around to going home.

They had come across using borrowed paddles that had been returned, but Thomas was confident about the return journey that he had made many times before.

There was some water in the bottom of the 12-ft boat which he bailed out, and he found a piece of rail on the riverbank to use as a makeshift paddle.

Conditions were calm but quite foggy as they began their fateful journey across the river.

Within 20 to 25 yards from the island, Daley was unsure of his direction and in leaning over to peer under the fog he capsized the punt and the family fell into the water.

Thomas grabbed the older boy and Kate the baby, but the boat kept tumbling over and they were unable to get back onboard.

Not strong swimmers themselves, the couple were struggling to save themselves as well as the boys, and to keep contact with the vessel.

They believed the children were already dead when they let go of them.

In the meantime William McGee had heard screams and immediately knew what had happened.

Clad only in his night shirt, he swam out to the punt and firstly helped Thomas Daley to the shore.

Claude Bradley had also been alerted and he helped bring Kate Bradley and the punt onto dry land.

Both the Daleys and McGee were exhausted, barely able to walk, and Dr John Brereton who examined Kate Daley said she would have drowned had she been in the water for another two minutes.

An inquest was subsequently conducted in the Central Shoalhaven council chambers at Terara by coroner Zaccheus G. Bice and a jury of 12 local residents.

As a result of his efforts, William McGee was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Humane Society of Australasia, and Bradley was awarded a bronze medal.

The first of William and Mary McGee's 13 children had been born on Pig Island.

They eventually moved on to live at Back Forest where they died within a month of each other in 1918.

Thomas Daley, who was also the father of 13 children, was reputed to have been the first white child born in the Meroo district, in 1862 when his father was a stock keeper for the Berry Estate.

After living on the island in the early part of his married life, he was a farmer at Bolong and later the Gray's Beach property that became Nowra Golf Club.

Daley Crescent at North Nowra is named after Thomas and Kate.