BERMAGUI

The port of Bermaguee first emerged in the 1830s to serve the needs of local farmers, and by 1868 the area had been mapped and portions of land were proposed to be sold. By the 1840s a boiling-down works operated near the mouth of the river and tallow was being shipped from the port.

Gold was discovered in 1880 north of Bermagui at Montreal. This sparked a gold rush that attracted 2,000 miners in just three weeks. However, by 1884 the field had been worked-out.

The Sydney Morning Herald described the post-goldrush town of Bermagui in 1887: Bermagui itself is merely a village containing not more than 100 residents. It boasts of a very fair public-house, dignified by the name of the Royal Hotel…Two stores appear to maintain a healthy existence, and the public school has, I believe, an average attendance of about 30 pupils. There is also a post office which despatches and receives mail four times a week…The great industry at present on the Bermagui River is a sawmill that appears to carry on an extensive business between Bermagui and Sydney, and intermediate ports.

From the late 1850s the Illawarra & South Coast Steam Navigation Company had been operating along the south coast, so a sea wharf was built at Bermagui in 1888 to better serve the immediate area. Enormous quantities of timber, and especially railway sleepers, were shipped from this wharf.

Bermagui is the closest town on the mainland to the edge of the continental shelf and this, together with favourable sea currents, provides outstanding fishing – both for professionals and amateurs. In the 1930s American author and big-game fisherman Zane Grey visited Bermagui on several occasions. He wrote about and filmed his experiences there – and in so doing ‘put Bermagui on the international map’.

In 1959 the Bermagui fishing harbour was constructed.