"In this centennial year of Coffs Harbour jetty, when memories of the harbour front are being revived, a stalwart of the past highly deserving of recognition is Daniel Shea. 

Dan Shea was born in Dalmorton. He married in 1899 and came to Coffs Harbour in 1902 as jetty crane-driver. Prior to that he had been engaged in prospecting and mining for gold, including at Kalgoorlie. Then, being a certified member of the Federated Engine Drivers' Association, he was employed for a time as jetty crane driver at Woolgoolga prior to his appointment to Coffs where he gained the additional appointment of Assistant Wharfinger.

He was a foundation member of the Fire Brigade (formed 1912), a member of the Chamber of Commerce (1911) and a trustee of the earliest ambulance service, formed in 1917 when a hand-cart, known as a litter, was the only official conveyance.

But it was on and around the harbour-front that Dan was best known. In 190? he effected a sea rescue by swimming out with a makeshift line to help a man who was being swept out to sea, thereby initiating the thought which led to formal establishment of the Jetty Surf Life Saving Club in 1910. His mastery at unloading ship's cargoes in heavy swells in the days before the breakwater was proven in 1914. The "Coolebar" [sic] had arrived with two huge pieces of ironwork, each 60 feet (18m) long and weighing 7 tons. These were required for construction of the railway turntable and their unloading posed something of a problem; but a report of the time stated the "Mr C. Shea was equal to the occasion."

The Sheas lived with their family of eight children, five girls and three boys*, in a large house in Camperdown Street. All were good swimmers and one of the girls (Thelma) received the silver medal and certificate of the Royal Humane Society in 1923 for a major role she played in the rescue of two girls swept out at Jetty Beach when a heavy sea was running.

One of the boys, Walter, who had joined the Navy in World War I, was an expert Morse code signalman and was for a time the official shore-based communicator with South Solitary Lighthouse, after the signal station at Dammerel Headland closed down about 1923-24. Instead of exchanging the usual evening signals from the official position at the shore-end of the jetty, Walter operated from the north-east corner of the Sheas' verandah. The house was also used during daylight as a marker by some of the ships' captains on entering harbour when their final run towards the jetty. One captain, whose visits generally seemed to coincide with the Sheas' washing day, claimed that the washing flapping from the clothes line was an extra help!

Daniel Shea died in Coffs Harbour in 1942. Two of his daughters, Mrs Effie Malley and Mrs Gertie Lovett, still reside in Coffs City."

Compiled by Neil Yeates, 1992, Publicity Officer for the Coffs Harbour Historical Society.

* another son, Charlie, died as a baby in 1902