LAKE CONJOLA

Lake Conjola (the waterway) is a tidal coastal lake or barrier estuary (so typically open to the ocean). It covers a 660-hectare area and is relatively deep. It is a well-known fishing location.

Lake Conjola is part of the traditional lands of the Wanda Wandian Aboriginal people. The name ‘Conjola’ may have been taken from one of their words meaning ‘place of winds’ or may have derived from ‘kongoola’, a freshwater flathead.

It is believed the area was visited in 1822 by Alexander Berry, Hamilton Hume and a Lieutenant Johnson whilst on their expedition up the Clyde River.

In 1857 a James Murray took up 500 acres in the area. He marked the road from Milton to Wandandian. At the time the area was a farming and timber-getting (including rich in cedar) area.

To the north of Lake Conjola and Bendalong is the site of the wreck of the Walter Hood, a luxury sailing ship that was blown ashore with considerable loss of life in 1870.

A school was opened in Conjola in 1874. Like many schools on the South Coast it had varying enrolments that affected its status: from 1874 to 1880 it was a provisional school, then from 1880 to 1893 a public school, then from 1893 to 1907 it was a half-time school paired with Jannung (Wandandian), then from 1907 to 1919 it was again a provisional school, and from 1920 to 1921 it was again a half-time school paired with Red Mill school.

The town’s post office opened in May 1879.

A Conjola Butter Factory opened in 1895, reflecting the area having become dairying country. (In 1907 the Yatta Yattah Co-operative Dairy Company was established at nearby Yatta Yattah, to the west of Lake Conjola, to produce butter from what was described as ‘some of the finest pastoral lands in the state’.)

Copper was discovered on the banks of the Conjola Creek near its headwaters around 1900. A mine worked the deposit for a short period in 1908-1909.

In 1914 the pioneering Murray family provided land for a Catholic Church in Lake Conjola. It functioned until 1969. The Church building was afterwards removed to Sussex Inlet.

In the 1920s and 1930s, silica was mined near Pattimore’s Lagoon (south of Lake Conjola) and was transported via a light railway to Bannister’s Head from where it was shipped to Newcastle and Port Kembla to be used in fire bricks.

Lake Conjola was severely affected by the 2019-2020 bushfires.