Shipping services to the northern rivers of New South Wales commenced with a schooner in about Autumn 1838, though steam soon followed.
The first people to use the rivers of the district were timber getters and sailing vessels catered to their requirements but as settlers appeared, there were frequent calls for a regular steamer service to Sydney.
It is not the intention of this work to give a history of these shipowners, but to record the vessels that were owned/controlled, but it should be noted that many small feeder craft used to bring goods to the ocean-going vessels, or deliver them to customers were not registered and most likely are not named.
Most of the information in this book comes from the Register of British Ships, supplemented by information from the insurance register issued annually for the Australian and New Zealand Underwriters Association between 1876-1950, Lloyd's register and files of the Australiasian Maritime Hisorical Society.
The first entry in the book is the North Coast Steam Navigation Co., due to its imprtance, but other than that all other entries are listed alphabetically by vessel.
