The Website for Cromarty & Cromartie Cousins Around the World.

Captain William Cromarty came to NSW with his wife in 1824. He had associations with the Australian Agricultural Co., and received a grant of 340 acres at Hunters River, near Booral, "for efficient services rendered to the Government". He later decided that land on the northern side of Port Stephens was more valuable and transferred his land grant to a site on the Karuah River.

The A.A. Company was anxious to claim the land stretching northward from the shores of Port Stephens and wanted it without the encumbrances of independent settlers. Surveyor General John Oxley, was sent to Port Stephens and after long negotiations, another land transfer was effected, with Captain Cromarty taking up final permanent residence on "300 acres, more or less" at Salamander Bay on a Iong finger of land poking north-east into the harbour.

Cromarty became a pilot at Newcastle, succeeding William Eckford in 1833, when he was also engaged to sound and chart the Hunter River. After receiving a serious injury while piloting a vessel, he resigned and settled at Soldiers Point where he had been granted land in lieu of the piece at Booral. Here he did cargo work, trading between Port Stephens, Newcastle and Sydney in a small brig named "The Fame".

He and his son William both died in 1st September, 1838, apparently in an attempt to salvage a boat from One Mile Beach. His wife, with another son and three daughters, stayed on at Soldiers Point, where they kept a small store for passing whalers and fishermen. For a time soldiers were stationed on Cromarty land to protect the widow and her family from escaped convicts (from Newcastle in the South and Tahlee on the northern side of Port Stephens). From then on the land was known as Soldiers Point.

Mrs Cromarty died in 1862, and was buried at Soldiers Point, as storms prevented the crossing to Carrington where her husband's remains had been taken. Mrs. Cromarty's headstone has been preserved by the Historical Society and remains in it's original position. Captain William Cromarty's daughter, Cecilia, married a Captain Banks, and afterwards settled a few miles from the Cromarty home on the shores of Port Stephens. Captain Banks also had a small trading vessel and carried dredged shell from the Port to Newcastle where it was burnt for lime at the Stockton kilns. His wife was a well-known identity in the pioneering days for her bushwife capabilities.

Magnus Cromarty, William Cromarty's younger son, left Port Stephens as a young man, and headed for the Bendigo Goldfields. Four years later he returned with 800 pounds. Using this money Magnus Cromarty bought a portion of land at Bobs Farm. In 1859 he married Christina MacIntosh, an immigrant from the Isle of Skye. They reared 12 children. On his land Magnus Cromarty grew wheat and arrowroot and kept sheep, pigs and poultry. He brought the first wheeled vehicle to the Port Stephens area - a spring cart that was somehow pulled through miles of virgin and tractless country.