Friday 25/11/2022   North Head Track – Lennards Island Track – Lennards Island

                                     Beowa National Park, NSW

                                     Yuin Country                                                   

Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report)      

Driving south from Haycock Point we drove to the Eden tip which was where our next walk started. Close to the road and very close to the tip, it was not really the ideal spot to have lunch or to start a walk. A high clearance four-wheel drive would negate the need to even walk this track but we decided not to risk it with our long-wheel base van. A mountain bike would be another good option. 

Download file: 20221125p.gpx                         Track Info

 

The fire trail was fairly unremarkable but the walk improved as we headed away from the main road. Along the way, there were a few wildflowers that were quite attractive. There is the option to go to Terrace Beach and also North Head but today we settled on just Lennards Island. 

Luckily for us, it was close to low tide so we could easily walk right across to Lennards Island. Between the rocky headland and Lennards Island, there were some great attractions. An interesting rock platform, water-rounded boulder fields below the cliff line and a fantastic view of Lennards Island from a small cave on the mainland headland.

Once on the island, the trails were less distinct and we were having to route find and bush bash to some extent. As we reached the far end of the island we really upset a nesting Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) who was using so much energy trying to ward us off the cliff edge. Some impressive protective parenting was on display!

Finding the route back off the island was a little challenging but we were soon on the fire trail headed back to the car. It ended up being an interesting walk! 

 

Photos

Panoramas

 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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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