Nowra

Nowra is a town on the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, on the southern bank of the Shoalhaven River. Nowra takes its name from a Dharawal word for the black cockatoo and is the main town of the City of Shoalhaven.

Alexander Berry and Edward Wollstonecraft took up a large grant on the north side of the river in 1822 and built the Coolangatta Estate at the foot of Mount Coolangatta. Berry's estate farmed cattle and tobacco, and its tenants cleared the river flats for dairy farming. A township was surveyed on the south bank in the 1850s, and the iron bridge across the Shoalhaven opened in 1881, linking it with the north side. Dairy farms and a butter factory supplied Sydney through the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ben's Walk follows the Shoalhaven River through bush and sandstone cliffs from the bridge to the west of the town. Nowra Wildlife Park, on the river's north bank, keeps kangaroos, koalas and wombats in bushland. Jervis Bay, to the southeast, has white sand beaches and clear water inside a marine park. Kangaroo Valley, in the hills to the north, has a suspension bridge from the 1890s over the Kangaroo River.

Shoalhaven Starches, part of the Manildra Group, turns wheat into starch, gluten and ethanol at its mill in Bomaderry across the river. Coolangatta Estate makes wine from grapes grown on the old Berry land, and the Shoalhaven Coast wine region has cellar doors along the river valley. HMAS Albatross, the naval air station of the Royal Australian Navy, lies on the southwestern edge of the town.