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On-a-Roll-Ad
The Tourism & Business Roll without Borders South Coast, South East NSW Eurobodalla Shire (Local Government Area) also known as the 'Land of Many Waters' (formerly the 'Nature Coast') Batemans Bay, Moruya & Narooma |
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However one looks at it, there's little wonder that the Eurobodalla, South Coast NSW (derived from an Indigenous Australian word meaning 'Land of Many Waters'), and formerly known also as the 'Nature Coast', is such a popular tourism destination! The Eurobodalla is a narrow coastal strip, about 101 km long and 40 km wide, sandwiched between two other local government areas: the Shoalhaven to the north and Bega Valley to the south. It is part of the magnificent NSW South Coast. The driving time from Canberra to the Eurobodalla — Batemans Bay — is about 2 hours (147 kms); from Sydney about 3.5 hours (276 kms); and from Melbourne about 8 hours (764 kms). There are daily air flights to and from Sydney & Melbourne—the airport is in Moruya, only 20 mins away from Batemans Bay. With a population of over 35 000, and covering an area of 3 430 sq kms, the Eurobodalla contains three major towns:
(note: you may need to refresh your browser to see the maps properly?)
Batemans Bay, (35°43'S 150°11'E, elev. 3m) so named by Lt James Cook RN in 1770 from the HM Bark Endeavour*, after Nathaniel Bateman a fellow naval officer under whom Cook had previously served. Cook never set foot on land here and Bateman never saw it; the latter later became First Lord of the Admiralty.
HM Bark Endeavour commanded by Lt Cook RN 1768
Today, Batemans Bay
truly is the beautiful and sought-after location it is made up to be.
From where ever and in what ever direction one looks one has a surfeit of
resplendent natural beauty! Being the closest coastal town to Canberra, and on the mouth of the spectacular Clyde River, the area gets lots of tourists — as the crayfish and oysters don't get any better elsewhere!
See also Estuaries in NSW
Temperatures average around 25°c during summer and 18°c during winter.
We have a rich cultural heritage from both the Koori (Indigenous) and European (White) sources and a vast array of Natural History preceding both cultures; and, our fascinating Geological History beats every other contender — at least in the 'Time' stakes.
Many indigenous Australians prefer the term 'Koori' (sometimes 'Koorie') to denote an Aborigine or young Aboriginal woman. So it is used here.
In human experience 60 000 years is still a long time, for archaeology reveals it's about that long that Aboriginal People have inhabited Australia (Terra Australis).
The Koori who lived here (millennia before white settlement named our Shire the 'Eurobodalla') were the Djuwin of the Walbanga, Brinja-Yuin and Djirringanj. These people speak the Dhurga and Djirringanj languages. Umbarra, the 'Black Duck', is the totem of the Yuin People of Wallaga.
Koori people have a mysterious spiritual bond with the Land (understood at the deeper level by the mythological language of Dreamtime or Dreaming).
The Shire of Eurobodalla, or ‘Land
of Many Waters' formerly called Nature Coast, is
amazingly attractive — a place of
wonderful natural beauty
— encompassing from the eastern side of the Great
Divide to the coast (including
Montague Island
off Narooma),
with magnificent eucalypt
forests, patches of rainforest, and rivers in between. It shares the larger
area known as the ‘Far South Coast’ with the Sapphire Coast (also known as
the 'Bega Valley Shire').
For recreation in the state forests south coast NSW click here.
Eurobodalla Shire (Local Government Area) PERMANENT WATER CONSERVATION MEASURES
Notes on the Shires of Southeast NSW
CURRENT MOON
All content ©
EurobodallaBiz
2006
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Clyde River, Batemans Bay, from a nearby lookout
Pelicans feeding, Batemans Bay South Coast NSW
Mt Dromedary ('Gulaga' as the Koori call it ) so named in 1770 by Lt James Cook RN from HM Bark Endeavour. This photograph was taken from within the Deua National Park, looking south towards Narooma and Gulaga National Park
Wilderness of Deua National Park, Eurobodalla Nature Coast
Montague Island, looking across from the Narooma Golf Course
Guided tours Montague Island
And if you visit the
Sapphire Coast as well
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your browser to see the maps properly?)
Contact a
local Travel Agent
South Coast NSW, ACR & ACT Tourist Information
Note: 'ACT' = Australian Capital
Territory, containing the National Capital, Canberra. It is part of
the larger geographical area called the Australian Capital Region 'ACR'.
*
HM Bark Endeavour sailed
from Plymouth
Cook was chosen by the
Royal Society of London
Following those
observations, additional Admiralty orders instructed Lt Cook 'to proceed
to the southward in order to make discovery of the Continent...there is
reason to imagine that a Continent or Land of great extent (Terra
Australis Incognita)... until you arrive in the Latitude of 40°, unless you
sooner fall in with it. But not having discover'd it or any evident signs
of it in that Run, you are to proceed in search of it to the Westward
between the Latitude before mentioned and the Latitude of 35° until you
discover it, or fall in with the Eastern side of the Land discover'd by
Tasman and now called New Zealand.'
Point Hicks
Cook claimed eastern
Australia for the Crown of Great Britain in
early 1770 naming it 'New
South Wales';
it would be officially settled as a British colony almost
two decades later on 26 January 1788 (meanwhile Cook had risen to the
rank of Captain before his death on the 'Sandwich Islands'
The British in 1788, overlooking the Koori
inhabitants of 'New South Wales' as
relatively insignificant since they didn't appear to make any
'Industry' or do anything useful or worthwhile, regarded Australia legally as a 'no man's land'
or an 'empty land'
— Terra Nullius.
It wasn't until almost two
centuries later that a national referendum in 1967
finally gave the Koori the right to vote.
Then, another 25 years on, 3 June 1992 marked...'the High
Court decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2). The decision upheld the
claims of five plaintiffs from Murray Island that Australia was
occupied by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who had their
own laws and customs, and whose native title to land survived the
Crown's annexation. Thus the court recognised the existence of native
title as part of Australian common law.' More...
Following the exit of the Howard government in
2007, the new Labour government under Kevin Rudd has formally apologised
to Indigenous People...
(Notes from NSW Parliament on history before European settlement)
Contact 'Onarollad'
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