The name Croom was assigned to the grant of Isabella Croker in 1839. Ebenezer Russell purchased the estate of 1280 acres in 1840, for 5 shillings per acre. Croom included the Stoney Creek community, where many of the early pioneers lived and farmed. Croom has been spelt in various ways since its beginnings including Croomb, Croom and Croome.

Stoney Creek farm buildings – Croome Vale Road

Stoney Creek was a community at Croom, in between Albion Park and Jamberoo. Many Irish and Scotch settlers established farms here in the mid-1800s. Stoney Creek was on the route over Locking Hill from Albion Park to Shellharbour, so named because carts had to lock their brakes down the steep decline.

Ebenezer Russell’s original homestead and farm buildings dating from the 1840’s, including basalt wheat mill, lime mortar dairy, timber slab stables, and original cottage still exist to this day, and are some of the oldest remaining buildings in the city.

Whispering Gallery

Whispering Gallery lies on part of the original Croom Estate. The Gallery is a natural cavern, 200 feet deep in places, approaching a quarter mile long, and about 300 feet wide. It contains several threatened and other species of flora, including sassafras, staghorn fern, fig, wild orchid, and some of the oldest and least touched forests along the eastern seaboard.

By 1840, Whispering Gallery was a significant tourist and picnic site that continued into the early 20^th century, and is listed in guesthouse, road and railway tourist booklets. Whispering Gallery is said to take its name from its acoustic properties that resemble those of the celebrated whispering gallery at St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

This circular cavern has been washed out from beneath the overhanging basaltic rock by the slow action of the weather and waterfall.