…the Mother of all floods…rose and rose until it went high enough to…float the punt up between the mangle room and fowl house. – Hugh Mackenzie, 29 April 1870
A punt was used for many years to reach Bundanon from the opposite southern bank, close to where the road to Nowra passed.
Access by boat or punt to Bundanon was already possible by the late 1840s, and mandatory, given the poor condition of the track from the west. Hugh Mackenzie included the punt in his description of farm structures in a letter to his sister about a major flood they had recently survived in early 1870.
The two Bunya Pines planted to the south of the Homestead identifying the track to the punt, and were used as markers for visitors coming up from or across the river. In the late 1920s milk was taken to the factory at Bomaderry every day at 7.30 am using the punt.
There was a punt cable and a tin shed on the Bamarang side with a sulky or buggy. A bell was rung to attract attention. Later the punt was replaced with a larger version capable of carrying a horse and buggy, and a small boat was left on the opposite side to the punt.
When there was heavy rain and floods were imminent the punt was pulled up high onto the bank of the river to avoid it being washed away. Unfortunately, it was washed away in the early 1970s. After this the road from the west via Cambewarra was the main means of access to the property.
