While these events were held on Empire Day and Easter, by the 1870s the favoured date was Anniversary Day, or Australia Day as we now know it.

However well before this, there was a big regatta held on the river in 1856 when the main event was won by the local combination of Zaccheus Bice, James Kennedy, William Kennedy and Angus Munro.

At the time there was a small vessel working on the river, and her crew challenged the winners to a race up the river to Wogamia and back, for £5 a man.

The challenge was accepted and the match fixed for the following Monday, but then comes the remarkable aspect of the story.

On the Saturday Bice went into the bush and cut some cedar logs, and next day he used them to build a boat while the Kennedys prepared the rest of the gear.

The untried boat proved to be no handicap, for the quartet beat the "sea-dogs" by half a mile, to earn the £20 at stake.

The Shoalhaven Regatta Club events of the 1870s held at Terara or Numbaa regularly attracted crowds of between 700 and 1000 people.

Between races there was invariably a brass band on hand to entertain, such as the Temperance Lodge band in 1872 and the Nowra Band in 1878.

The annual regatta at Numbaa in 1879 attracted a crowd of 1400 people who patronised the four hotel booths and several soft-drink marquees.

Eight events on the program carried as much prizemoney as £12 for first prize and £2 for second, with each vessel being named on the program.

The main race, the Shoalhaven Cup for boats 22-ft. overall, pulled by a pair of sculls by bona-fide residents, saw D. Pollock's Chester take the prize of £7 and the cup valued at £5.

A year later a sailing race was included on the card and it produced some excitement.

Two of the entrants capsized and the skipper of the Claudine, Robert Hinder (first principal of Terara School) had to be rescued by Captain Alexander Buchanan.

While his three crew members swam to shallow water, Mr Hinder became exhausted and also lost his watch and chain in the mishap.

Although he had intimate knowledge of the river through his daily work, Captain Buchanan also came to grief when his boat Bleezy capsized while rounding the moored punt.

A leading administrator of the day was the club president, bank mananger Frederic Flatt who was the recipient of a field glass and illuminated address at the 1880 regatta dinner.

The regattas of this era attracted sportsmen from many fields, but at least one of them (James Stanbury) went on to become a world champion sculler.