Friday 25/11/2022 Haycock Point Walking Track – Haycock Point – Haycock Rock – Haycock Beach
Beowa National Park, NSW
Yuin Country
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report)
It was a fine sunny morning as we set out on the short loop walk with the aim to have a look around Haycock Point and Haystack Rock. As we were setting out we chatted to a National Parks contractor who was working on weed control. We noticed that he had sprayed himself and as well covered himself with long sleeves, pants and full gaiters. He told us that the ticks were out in force so we took precautions as well.
Max elevation: 39 m
Total climbing: 94 m
Total descent: -101 m
Average speed: 3.61 km/h
Total time: 01:18:14
We headed back along the road to complete that section of the loop first and entered where there was a gate and a “Men at Work” sign. We could hear some machinery and soon another National Parks employee approached us and said we weren’t allowed there as it was a custodial area. He said we weren’t in trouble as there was no sign but he would show us the track to leave the area. [As a mark of respect please avoid the western north-south section of the route we took]. This track was where we had intended to walk anyway. It seemed strange there was no sign as we certainly wouldn’t have entered if there was.
Common Brown Butterfly (Heteronympha merope) near Ioala Point
The wide grassy paths were most notable because of the many butterflies flying around apparently aimlessly. We then walked down to Haycock Point with nice views and more colourful panoramas with turquoise water, lush green vegetation and red and brown rocks.
On our walk back an English woman told us she saw the biggest lizard ever at the start of the walk but presumably the “goanna” was nowhere to be seen when we returned.
My family connection with the Pambula district
(based on historical records and notes my grandmother wrote in the 1980s)
My great great grandfather, Matthew Woollard, moved to Pambula from Garden Hill Cottage, Wollongong in 1867.
Envelopes Addressed to Matthew Woollard 1867 – 1868
Matthew purchased about 340 acres of land at Green Point on the southern shore of Lake Merimbula which, over time, he cleared for mixed farming. All types of horse-drawn and hand implements were used to aid in these labours to enable the family to be self-supporting. Connection to electric power did not occur until about the 1980s.
Merimbula Lake view from “Green Point” homestead
At its peak, the property included a five-acre orchard (apples, melons, etc.) and a five-acre vineyard. Elsewhere they also grew vegetables, corn and oats. Livestock included cattle and pigs. The local waterways provided oyster growing and fishing opportunities.
The farm had a fully equipped dairy which dictated each day’s work schedule, as other jobs needed to fit in around milking. Cream was sent to a local factory and calves and pigs were fed excess skimmed milk.
Green Point, Pambula
They slaughtered and butchered their own stock for meat and smoke-dried Taylor (fish) for home use.
Matthew had licenses to distil brandy from wine as early as 1869. His son Matthew was listed as a vigneron at Pambula in both the 1903 & 1905 Sand’s Country Directories. One large barn on the property included a wine press and twenty or more wine casks. Here they produced six different types of wine, including sherry, port and hermitage. On Sundays they had many visitors arrive to buy cases of wine for 2.00 pounds.
Their produce, including vegetables, fruit and fish, was sold locally in town on Fridays. On each Thursday, they endured a day of heavy and hard work in preparation.
On Merimbula Lake they had a small wharf and boat shed with a flat-bottomed boat for the shallow, muddy foreshore oyster work and a keel bottom boat for pleasure.
They had oyster leases on Pambula River where they kept another boat in a shed on the river bank. They also started two oyster leases on Merimbula Lake in 1887 below their Green Point property. After the oysters were bagged they were sent down to Melbourne where they earned about 4 pounds per bag. Any chipped or broken oysters were used at home, where they were eaten raw or cooked as soups, fried or incorporated into pancakes.
Matthew’s daughter Clara, my great-grandmother, was a teacher for many years at nearby Millingandi School before taking up the assistant teacher’s position at Pambula Public School in 1915. I still have in my possession the piano Clara bought in 1901 and I assume it played a key role in their evening entertainment.
My grandmother, Hilda, was born at Green Point in 1900 and lived her early years there. A letter her mother wrote after she was bitten by a snake in the orchid in 1906 makes very interesting reading.
Norman Smith at Green Point, 1930s?
The house, 1990’s version
Parts of this Green Point property were sold off over the years to pay taxes but the core remained with Matthew’s descendants (first his son Thomas Woollard, followed by granddaughter Ivy Smith and finally great grandson Norman Smith) until 2012, a span of four generations and 145 years!
Information on NSW National Parks signage along the way
A gathering place for thousands of years
Beowa National Park has a rich history of Aboriginal use. More than 50 Aboriginal sites have been recorded in the park.
Many of the headlands and estuaries in the park have middens where Aboriginal people gathered. These sites are evidence of at least 6000 years of Aboriginal occupation of the area and provide the local Aboriginal community with traditional and spiritual links to this part of their country.
The dark rich soil and accumulated shells of middens are silent remains of great feasts where Aboriginal people gathered. This evidence links our past to our present and to our future. All cultural sites, Aboriginal and European, are protected.
Stroll out to Haycock Point
A 10 minute walk through regenerating coastal wattle leads to Haycock Point, with extensive red and purple rock platforms and the Haystack Rock.
The juicy red berries of the coastal Seaberry Saltbush provides bush tucker for Aboriginal people and important food for birds when nectar is scarce.
Walk to Barmouth Beach
Walk along the coast from Haycock Point to Barmouth Beach which overlooks the Pambula River mouth and Pambula Beach. The track wanders through land previously cleared for farming and now being reclaimed by coastal shrubs and through tall open coastal forest. Allow 90 minutes walking time for this easy 5 km return trip.
Walk down to Barmouth Beach through coastal forests.
The nectar from Banksia flowers was used by Aboriginal people to sweeten drinking water which often soured in the small pools from which it was taken.
The rollicking ‘yehkop yehkop’ call and cackles of the Little Wattlebird can be heard as the bird announces its feeding territory. This large honeyeater might need to visit up to 500 banksia flower heads every day to satisfy its energy needs
Lunch amongst the banksias
The banksia bushes make a pleasant backdrop to the picnic tables and barbeque grills. As you eat, keep an eye out for honeyeaters which find the banksia nectar irresistible. Which honeyeater seems to be ‘boss bird’ chasing away all other honeyeater species?
Pottering around the park
Severs Beach
A sandy track and a 500 metre walk to a quiet bay on the estuary near the mouth of Pambula Lake. Extensive evidence of Aboriginal midden and small abandoned efforts at farming and forestry remain as testaments to past lives. Now people share the natural beauty of the estuary with wildlife
North Long Beach Walk from the carpark under the Red Bloodwood trees down through the coastal vegetation to the wide beach for summer lazing, winter strolling to see what the tide has tossed in, or beach fishing. Allow 10 minutes to the beach.
North Long Beach
The red and white striped pinnacle spires of the Pinnacles. The white clay was used for white ochre by the Aboriginal people of the • Monaroo areas and was an important trade commodity for them.
Stroll to the Pinnacles
An easy 1 km loop walk through coastal fringe forest, old pines and heath to a lookout over the Pinnacles, a deep erosion gully with red and white striped pinnacle spires. A further 300m and some steep steps, will take you to Long Beach. Allow 30 minutes.
The rocky headland at Haycock Point shows the twisting strength of the earth in bygone geological time and the more recent erosion of the rocks by the elements.
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