Shoalhaven Who's Who
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR CONNECTIONS.
Meet the people behind the place.
Discover the people, businesses and groups who call Shoalhaven home, and meet members across Australia.
Each Portrait connects you with the public introduction and links that member has chosen to share.
PART OF THE WIDER NETWORK
Meet members across Australia
Discover members from other towns, cities and regions.
Distinguished and Famous people from Shoalhaven
🎨 Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd first visited Bundanon on the Shoalhaven River in 1971. What began as a weekend invitation became a ten-day stay, and the river landscape renewed his enthusiasm for landscape painting. Arthur and Yvonne later acquired property in the area, including Bundanon itself in 1979. Artists shared their home and studio before the couple's major gift of properties and artworks to the Australian public in 1993. The resulting cultural institution carries that generosity into exhibitions, education and creative work. Boyd's Shoalhaven connection combines residence, artistic subject and public philanthropy: the river was both something he painted and a place he wanted others to experience.
📚 Henry Kendall
Henry Kendall was born in the Ulladulla district in 1839, giving Shoalhaven a direct connection with one of nineteenth-century Australia's recognised poets. His early life was unsettled: following his father's death, the family moved to Wollongong, and as a teenager he joined the whaler Waterwitch. Returning to New South Wales, he began contributing poems to periodicals. Employment as a solicitor's clerk in Grafton also provided access to an extensive library, an important opportunity for a young writer. His Shoalhaven birthplace was the beginning of a career developed across several towns, with seafaring and paid work alongside the literary ambitions.
🤝 Percy Mumbler
Percy Mumbler spent his final six years at the Shoalhaven Nursing Home in Bomaderry, after a long life of activism and cultural leadership on the south coast. His local work included helping secure housing at Browns Flat and supporting the Aboriginal Legal Service at Nowra. He shared stories and knowledge through oral accounts later published by Roland Robinson, and advocated Aboriginal ownership of land. Friends remembered warmth, humour and an animated singing voice. The Shoalhaven connection spans childhood visits and residence near Nowra, sustained community work and a documented later home at Bomaderry.
