John Grono (c.1767- 4 May 1847) was a settler, sailor, ship builder, ship captain, sealer, whaler and farmer who migrated to Australia in 1799 from Wales. Captaining the ship the Governor Bligh, he would later go on to be the first European to fully explore and name parts of the south-western coast of New Zealand's south island including among others Milford Sound, Bligh Sound and Elizabeth Island.
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Very little is known of Grono's life prior to his migration to Australia. He was born in Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales around 1767. Navy records show Grono was involved in a number of navy operations beginning in 1790 when he entered the HMS Royal William as an AB (Able Seaman), suggesting he was already an experienced sailor at this time. He was married to Elisabeth Bristowe on the 20th of July 1790 in Surrey England. By 1793 he was promoted to the rank of Boatswain's Mate. On the 7th of January 1798 Grono joined the crew of HMS Buffalo as an AB and again was promated to Boatswain's Mate later that year. On this ship, John, his wife Elisabeth and his three children travelled to Australia, arriving in N.S.W on the 4th of a May 1799. That year he was transferred from the HMS Buffalo to the Colonial Vessel Francis (the first vessel built in Australia), where he served as First Officer. By mid 1801 he had left the colonial vessels and gone into a farming partnership with James Ryan.
John Grono and his wife Elisabeth Bristowe along with their young family took up land on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where John embarked in a new endeavour as a ship builder, soon setting out on sea faring voyages on vessels he had built including the Elisabeth and the Governor Bligh. It was these such voyages that eventually saw him become one of the earliest European visitors to the south- west coast and Canterbury region of New Zealand. Of this area Sir Joseph Banks had earlier written: "The southern part of New Zealand produces seals of all kinds, in quantities presently innumberable". The seal rush was on and Captain Grono, ever the capitalist, sought to profit from the immense seal and whale populations these southern waters.
Grono's exploits in the fjordland region of New Zealand began when the Governor Bligh struck a rock in Foveaux Strait in 1809. Grono was able to save the ship and safely made it back to Sydney with a cargo of over 10,000 seal skins, along with one of the earliest descriptions of Foveaux Strait, recording the name in print for the first time ever. At the same time he also named Windsor Point after the town where the Governor Bligh was built on the Hawkesbury River.
A second sealing voyage aross the Tasman took place in April of the same year, returning to Sydney nine months later with another 10,000 skins. On this voyage, Grono and his crew entered Doubtful Sound, the first known visit for 16 years when it was discovered and explored by Don Felipe Bauza, who mistakenly assumed it was a part of Dusky Bay when he investigated the area in a longboat. Grono solved this confusion and proved it to be a northern outlet from the sound to the sea. Grono set up a base in a cove on Secretary Island and the site is still known as Grono Bay. The Highest peak on Secretary Island is named Mt Grono and at least one old chart names the sound itself "Gronow's" instead of "Doubtful". At the head of the sound lies Elisabeth Island, which Grono named for his wife. At some point presumably towards the end of this voyage Grono sailed north to have at least a preliminary look at the sounds there. It is thought in this time he named Bligh Sound after his neighbour in Australia, the former governor of New South Wales, from whom his ship also took her name. Grono also named Milford Sound after Milford Haven in Wales. Nancy Sound and Caswell Sound have also been traced back to the Welsh Captain who had become the first to explore this area to this extent.
In 1813, Grono again returned with a cargo of 14,000 seal pelts as well as three stranded sealers who he rescued from Secretary Island. The survivors had been left on the island by the ill-fated ship The Active, which sailed away and was never heard from again. The men survived for three years on a diet of seal meat and ferns. Convinced the sealers were escaped convicts and despite their protests he took them back to Sydney to the chains. He later learnt of their innocence and was overcome with remorse, giving two of the men, Alexander Books and Robert Mckenzie, employment. The two men would go on to become Grono's sons-in-law.
After some time away from the ocean working on his farm, Grono made at least two more trips to Fiordland in his newly launched vessel the Elisabeth, named for his wife. In May 1824 he arrived in Sydney with 5,300 skins and on this, the conclusion of his last voyage, handed the command of the Elisabeth over to his rescued son-in-law Alexander Books. Books kept up the family tradition returning from Dusky Bay in 1825 with 3,000 seal skins on board.
Grono remained an authority on the Cantebury region of New Zealand and its many islands, bays and sounds. When Captain D'Urville arrived in Sydney in 1824, it was Grono that supplied his cartographer with detailed information for the first coastal descriptions of the Fiordland coast, as well as direct sailing directions for Milford Sound.
After retiring from his New Zealand maritime adventures Grono set to expanding his ship building and farming enterprises. He and son William built and launched numerous vessels on the Hawkesbury, one of which the Bennalong (later renamed the Australian), was larger than any ship built on the river by 100 tonnes.
Grono claimed to have built seven ships in his lifetime, some of which the biggest the colony had seen. Four of the ships that can be traced directly to Grono's Hawkesbury shipyard are Elizabeth(84 tons) 1821; Industry(87 tons) 1826; Australian(270 tons) 1829; and Governor Bourke(200 tons) 1833. Grono also owned the following vessles Speedwell, Unity, Governor Bligh and Branch.
Shipbuilding went on to become Grono's eldest son, William's passion. William's meticulusly kept journal provides an insight to the methods of ship building in that period and area. William Grono went on to build the vessel the Esther Maria which spent her life sailing up and down the east coast of Australia as a cargo ship.
John Grono lived into old age and passed away on the 4th of May 1847, he was approximately 80. His wife Elisabeth died fourteen months later at age 77.They were survived by nine children. The couple are buried at the entrance to Ebenezer Church, New South Wales Australia. The couple themselves had played a pivotal role in the development and construction of this very church, believed to be one of the first churches built in the Australian Colony.