Ports and harbours can provide safe anchorage. At the same time, entering or leaving a port or harbour can be the most dangerous part of a voyage. (Click on the accompanying map to view the Ports and Harbours in that region, if applicable.) The bar at Narooma on the south coast - dangerous even with well engineered breakwaters. Photograph by David Nutley

Ports and port facilities were vital to settlement, exploration, trade and industry.  Apart from Sydney, ports developed at Newcastle, Port Stephens and Wollongong as well as a number of other regional centres.

Major harbour works were built by government through the Colonial Architects Office, Harbours and Rivers, Lands Department and Public Works Department.  A private entrepreneur set up a port at Boydtown in Twofold Bay.

Today the coastal trade has all but gone. Its place in history can still be seen in jetties, break walls, dredged channels, moorings, slipways, wharves, shipbuilding yards and navigational aids. Many of the historic precincts, such as former shipyards, docks and berthing facilities, can also be visited.