Shellharbour's Local History Blog: The Fuller Family of Dunmore House

George Laurence Fuller sailed from Ireland to Australia in 1839 when he was seven with his father William, mother Ann, and six brothers and sisters. During the voyage typhus fever broke out among the passengers and Mr William Fuller died just 13 days before reaching Sydney.

Ann gave birth to a son who also died on the voyage and two-year-old Charlotte died in quarantine in Sydney. Ann Fuller opened a store in Corrimal Street, Wollongong, placing her young children in Liverpool and Parramatta orphanage until she could afford to bring them home.

On leaving school, George helped his mother with her shop keeping business. In 1852 when he was just 23 he left for the goldfields, a venture that established him financially.

In 1865, the southern division of the Peterborough Estate at Shellharbour was advertised for sale; 2,560 acres on the Minnamurra River adjoining the Terry’s Meadows Estate. George Laurence Fuller bought part of the property and named his new estate Dunmore after his old family home in Ireland.

He built Dunmore House of rubble blue metal locally obtained. By 1880, George owned some 9,000 acres of the original Peterborough Estate extending from Lake Illawarra to the Minnamurra River and west to Croom, Albion Park. By the 1880s he had established a blue metal trade at Bass Point.

Fuller is noted for his generosity to Shellharbour’s development. He gave two acres for a new school in 1883 called Minnamurra School and contributed largely to the municipality providing tenant farmers to work the land, expanding the blue metal trade in 1885 and providing cottages and work for the quarrymen.

Fuller also gave land for the Shellharbour General Cemetery and gifted a fully equipped operating theatre, and the Sarah Fuller Memorial Ward (named for his wife) at Kiama Hospital.