Tuesday 22/11/2022 Pambula Beach Caravan Park – Merimbula Beach – Jiguma Nature Area – Pambula River – “Kanangra Track” – Shark Hole
Beowa National Park, NSW
Yuin Country
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos, Report), Sue Davies
Pambula Beach Caravan Park – Merimbula Beach – Jiguma Nature Area – Pambula River
This was the first of a series of short walks from our camper van based at Pambula Beach Caravan Park. Our beachfront site had us on to Merimbula Beach for a short walk to its southern end where there is a public carpark if you are staying elsewhere. At the end of the beach, there is a short flight of stairs that take you up onto the headland and into Jiguma Nature Area. The views north along Merimbula Beach up to Merimbula itself are great. Jiguma Nature Area offers well-shaded walking through remnant coastal forest and a number of lookouts over the rocky foreshore below.
Max elevation: 46 m
Total climbing: 599 m
Total descent: -598 m
Average speed: 3.77 km/h
Total time: 02:33:58
Once through this short Nature Area, you head back down onto the small, sandy Pambula Beach which wraps around the entrance of Pambula River. On the opposite bank is Beowa National Park where there are more small sandy beaches separated by coastal forest, which would explore over the next couple of days.
Now following the northern shoreline of Pambula River we passed someone fishing, a small park and a tiny boatshed. A little further on you leave the beach and follow a trail through the forest to a small viewing platform with good views along the river. From this point, we were looking directly across to Severs Beach on the other side of the river. We continued past the viewing platform where the trail became less obvious but we were well rewarded with the memorable sighting of three echidnas within five minutes, two of whom were only about ten metres apart. Very unusually they didn’t seem terribly concerned by our appearance and continued muzzling their beaks in and out and around in the leaf litter searching for food. This was the best opportunity I had had for echidna photos for many years.
Short-Beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) beside Pambula River
After our echidna sightings, we proceeded a little further around the river’s edge until the trail started to peter out from where we could see some oyster leases further upstream. From here we headed back to our van for lunch, taking a shortcut across the headland partly through some residential streets.
Pambula Beach Caravan Park – Merimbula Beach – Jiguma Nature Area – Pambula River – “Kanangra Track” – Shark Hole
After lunch, we headed out again to walk the “Kanangra” Track which follows the ridge to the southwest of Pambula Beach village. As Sue had already completed a 10km run before our morning hike she opted to turn back after reaching Pambula Beach.
Max elevation: 110 m
Total climbing: 348 m
Total descent: -351 m
Average speed: 4.05 km/h
Total time: 03:21:44
I continued on, reaching the track via Weemilah Drive and Kanangra Street. I was only 100m along the trail when I noticed a Lace Monitor (Varanus varius) heading up a tree, so diverted off the trail for a photo. The ”trail” itself is actually a vehicular track that any four-wheel drive with adequate clearance could comfortably negotiate. In the warmth of a sunny afternoon I only caught a glimpse of a couple of birds amongst the forest of trees and dappled light. Near the end of the track, it begins to descend towards the Pambula River. Here there were some nice paper daisies providing a good feed for a number of butterflies.
Butterfly on paper daisy near the end of “Kanangra” Track
As the track disappeared I decided to scramble further down the hill towards the Pambula River. The forest floor was reasonably open bar a couple of fallen trees and I made it to the river shore fairly easily in the end. I popped out of the trees at some oyster leases on a big bend in the river just past Shark Hole. From here there is a wide expanse of water to the south.
Oyster leases near Honeysuckle Point
I returned the same way I had come until I reached the built-up area, from where I took the shortest route back into Jiguma Nature Area and the walking trail back to the caravan park.
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!
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