Joe Crafts Bay

On the western shore of Berowra Creek opposite Collingridge Point. Joseph Craft (1770-1839) is buried in the cemetery at Wiseman’s Ferry. He arrived with the Third Fleet in 1791 and after several brushes with the law acquired 60 acres at Milkmaid Reach about 1811. In 1809 he had a son, also named Joseph, by Sarah Robinson whom he married in 1810. About 1821 they moved to “Primrose Hill” in Mangrove Creek and he became known as a skilled sawyer. Joseph Jnr married Frances Douglass in 1840. There was a good deal of movement between the two creeks in earlier times. There is obvious evidence of an old house site on the northern side of the bay, and one of the Crafts could have had a shack there as a base for timbergetting.