Caroline Chisholm assisted settlers to Shellharbour in 1843. Her ‘Shellharbour experiment’ gave families the opportunity to settle on clearing leases, enabling them to live rent free for six years on the condition they clear the land of trees and scrub for future farming.

Robert Towns, son-in-law of original landowner D’Arcy Wentworth, provided land and basic supplies for the scheme. Towns offered 4000 acres of land to Chisholm to settle families on clearing lease farms at Shellharbour on the Peterborough Estate.

On 6 December 1843, Chisholm brought 23 families by steamer to Shellharbour Harbour. The families were reported to have lived in tents until bark huts were built.  Matthew Dorrough, his wife Martha and their children, came with Chisholm and farmed the area known as Shell Cove today. The family was off-loaded onto the beach in the afternoon and spent their first night under the stars, with the children huddled up under the roots of a large fig tree at the edge of the beach.  The next morning, they were picked up by bullock dray and transported to the site of their proposed farm.

By 1857, many of the settlers had secured or leased homes and properties, and they turned mainly to dairy farming to make a living. By 1861, the population had grown to 1,415 and land began to open up throughout the whole of the new Municipality of Shellharbour.