Alexander BerryPrint Page

A portrait bust commemorates Alexander Berry, a merchant and settler of the Shoalhaven District. 

Alexander Berry (1781 – 1873) was a Scottish-born surgeon, merchant and explorer who in 1822 was given a land grant of 40 square kilometres and 100 convicts to establish the first European settlement on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

This settlement became known as the Coolangatta Estate and later developed into what is now the town of Berry, named in honour of Alexander and his brother David.

Berry set up a partnership with Edward Wollstonecraft (Berry and Wollstonecraft) and sailed to Sydney in 1819. Berry sailed as supercargo aboard the 'Admiral Cockburn', leaving England January 1819, and arriving in Sydney in July. He was shortly followed by Wollstonecraft aboard the Canada. They set up as merchants on George St, in The Rocks area. 

In January and February 1822 Berry went with Hamilton Hume and Lieutenant Robert Johnson on a journey of exploration down the coast of New South Wales aboard the Snapper. During the journey he investigated the land in Shoalhaven area.  In June 1822, Berry and Wollstonecraft purchased a small cutter, the Blanche, and Berry returned to the Shoalhaven with Hume and assigned servants (convicts) to develop his land grant there. The partnership was granted 40 square kilometres there by Governor Brisbane on condition of providing for 100 convicts (1 per 0.40 square kilometres) of the grand).

Berry set up the Coolangatta Estate while Wollstonecraft stayed in Sydney to look after business there. Berry later secured two additional land grants of 16 square kilometres each. Together with purchases, the size of the estate grew to 130 square kilometres in the early 1840s. His partner, Edward Wollstonecraft, died in 1832, with the entire Coolangatta estate passing to Alexander Berry.

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