Innes’ Boatshed and Jetty, Batemans Bay

Innes’ Boatshed and Jetty, Batemans Bay

Innes’ Boatshed and Jetty have, as structures, little to commend them. And the ‘unsophisticated, cheap and functional’ boatshed (as it is described in its heritage assessment) also significantly detracts from and blocks the views of and across the Clyde River from the southern (township) side of the river.

So why does this boatshed and jetty have a heritage listing? Because they are iconic Batemans Bay structures and because they are the last remaining structures with links to the ‘original’ Clyde River waterfront in Batemans Bay township.

Today’s riverside promenade is very different to what was once there. What is now Innes’ Boatshed, for example, was originally completely surrounded by water in an inlet called Bubble Bay, it having been built on a wharf that was erected there by the Illawarra Steam Navigation Company in the early part of the 20th century. There were a number of jetties either side of the boatshed jetty that have now long disappeared, as have other sheds and buildings that catered to the needs of local maritime industries, and as has a public tidal swimming enclosure that was once sited further downriver.

The boatshed was built by Bert Atwell in the late 1940's-early 1950's from local ironbark but has since been modified a number of times ‘in an unsophisticated manner...to address the changing needs of both the users and the public.’ The jetty has also been extended and modified several times to cater for changing uses.

The lease on the boatshed and wharf was acquired by Holroyd Innes in about 1958. His son, Merv, and wife, Robin, lived in north-western Sydney and, for several years, would drive down on weekends to Batemans Bay to hire out launches. They eventually moved to the Bay and converted a loft area in the Boatshed to accommodate their family.

Merv and his sons became local fishermen and from the late 1970s-early 1980s, the Innes family started selling fish they had caught and chips from the Boatshed – ultimately transforming the boatshed/fish & chippery into an enduring, popular Batemans Bay landmark.

The boatshed and jetty have, over time, become integral parts of the bayside landscape. And now they give that important quality known as ‘Place’ (the historic, visual, cultural, social and environmental characteristics that provide a location with its particular uniqueness) to the area: providing a physical connection between sea/river and land/town; providing a hint at the riverside’s earlier important commercial and industrial maritime-based history; by honoring the Innes family’s (continuing) very significant links with local fishing, retailing and tourism activity; by suggesting or imparting a ‘waterfront boats, fishing, seafood processing, and a fish and chips-style holiday atmosphere’ to this area of town.

Sources: State Heritage Inventory listing; Canberra Times 26.12.1997; Information from Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society and Robin Innes.