Wednesday 23/11/2022   Pambula Beach Caravan Park – Merimbula Beach – “Merimbula Beach” Trail – Boggy Creek – Merimbula

                                               Beowa National Park, NSW

                                               Yuin Country                                     

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

Getting older and trying to keep getting out amongst nature, hiking the trails, exploring the scenery and appreciating the wildlife encounters. We are slowing down but don’t admit it to ourselves very often. We still get in 20km days in the mountains but are leaning more toward day walks based on our new campervan. After a day of walking it has been magical to return to the van and enjoy a cold drink or normal food and cooking, a great night’s sleep on a “real” bed secure in any weather. It has been making it easy to explore the types of places we love.

Download file: 20221123.gpx             Track Info

 

Today we thought we would walk to Merimbula for a cafe lunch. Once past the first couple of hundred metres, we had the beach largely to ourselves. We didn’t find this terribly surprising, as most of the neighbours in the caravan park seemed to spend most of their day sitting around camp chilling out, eating and drinking with maybe an occasional trip to sit on the beach or have a quick swim. 

Today we had good walking weather with a little warmth and a few clouds. There was not too much to see along the beach but plenty of little shells along one section. We were disappointed to see the sewerage outfall pipe towering over the beach and needing to walk around the pool of water underneath it to proceed. A little further along we headed off the beach towards a trail marked on my map (Pocket Earth) in order to check out the vegetation and wildlife in that different ecosystem. 

The trail was disappointing from the perspective that it was a service trail for the power lines that it followed and was close to the main road. We did, however, chance on a flock of Yellow Tail Black Cockatoos (Zanda funerea) directly adjacent to the trail. From a bird-watching perspective, this would be a great walk as alongside the trail there is a combination of low shrubs and tall trees providing habitat for species with different preferences. We would likely see many more early morning or at dusk.

Once into Merimbula, we checked out the first interestingly named Cranky Cafe, but ended up a little cranky ourselves as they only offered takeaway cups for drinks. We decided against supporting them and pushed on across the bridge into Merimbula where we found another cafe along the boardwalk near Beach Street for lunch.

We returned along the foreshore area around the historic Fishpen area, noting their historical signage along the way. Out further and onto Bar Beach we could see across to the old wharf from where my grandmother caught a steamship to Sydney in her younger years.

There we plenty of signs on Bar Beach as it was the nesting season for the local Red-capped Plovers (Charadrius ruficapillus). We kept our distance and still manage some photos with my 500mm lens.

For our return walk, we remained entirely on Merimbula Beach, only pausing a couple of times to watch a seagull using its feet to disturb the sand at the water’s edge to get a feed. I also took the opportunity to practise taking photos of birds in flight at close range, pretty boring though, as they were only seagulls.

Photos

 

Information on Bega Valley Council signage along the way

Continuing a long tradition

Merimbula is part of the beautiful and traditional lands of the Yuin people. Oral histories and important spiritual and archaeological sites are evidence of the long relationship Aboriginal people have had with this area. 

a seafood paradise 

A massive collection of stone artefacts, recovered from an archaeological site at Merimbula Public school and numerous other sites, including middens and burials, indicates the extent of Aboriginal occupation around Merimbula Lake. Large midden sites also add to our knowledge of life before European settlement. Aboriginal men and women fished from canoes using different techniques. The women made hooks from shells and fishing lines from plant fibres, while the men fished with multi-pronged wooden spears.

fishing in the 1920s 

Commercial net fishing in Merimbula’s waters was a small industry operating from the early 1920s. Fish caught in the lake were similar to those species caught today, including flathead, tailor, bream, blackfish and Australian salmon. They were sold to the public at the jetty.

In the early days the fishermen needed to keep their catch alive in readiness for transport to the Melbourne markets. A submerged system of fencing was devised so the fish could be netted and kept alive In an enclosure until transport could be arranged. This ‘fishpen’ was a structure made of tea tree branches, old nets and wire netting. In 1927, the Mitchelson family and Earnie Wils, built a permanent fishpen in the area known today as Fishpen.

Baskets of water filters floating on the lake

Oysters gather their food by filtering large volumes of water. This filtering action cleans the water by removing fine particles, enhances water clarity and promotes seagrass, saltmarsh and mangrove health. Oysters are the ‘canaries’ of the lake – if oysters are healthy, it indicates the lake is healthy.

learning first hand 

Local education programs aim to teach our children about growing oysters, the ecology of our coastal estuaries, and the importance of a sustainable oyster industry.

Oyster cultivation is a safe and natural form of farming. In contrast to fish farming, oysters do not require artificial food, and instead feed on suspended particles in the water. Oyster growing relies on the natural environment to supply nutrients, food particles and sunlight to produce the optimum food mix for oysters.

Continuing oyster farming

Aboriginal Australians ate oysters and managed oyster beds for thousands of years before European settlement. The oyster farming industry in New South Wales began in the 1800s. Originally, lake beds were exploited via a dredging process, which churned up oysters for collection. The shell was crushed and burned (often alive) for lime to make mortar for building. During this time, many ancient Aboriginal midden sites were damaged when the shell was removed.

In 1884 the Oyster Fisheries Act was proclaimed, which regulated the gathering of oysters and the leasing of oyster beds.

In Merimbula, oyster farming was an established industry by the 1920s, flourishing through the 1940s and beyond. In the early days, oysters were grown on rock beds, and later on wattle and stringybark poles. These techniques were superseded by the use of hardwood sticks, and again with ‘rack and tray’ farming.

 

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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