Ocean View House, Batemans Bay

Ocean View House, Batemans Bay

Ocean View House in High Street, Batemans Bay is an impressive two-storey, timber clad structure encircled by wide verandahs. It was built as a guest house in 1928-1929 for Albert and Maud Ryan after they won £5,000 from backing the winner of the Rosehill Cup in 1926: ‘The investment (in backing a horse named Valamita) was the result of a dream, and every detail in Miss Ryan’s (Albert Ryan’s sister) sleeping vision was fulfilled.’

Ocean View House is heritage listed because it is a good, intact example of simple interwar design and because of its historical associations with the interwar development of Batemans Bay as a tourist destination.

It has nine upstairs guest bedrooms, each of which open on to the wide verandah which affords extensive views of the Clyde River and Tasman Sea to the north and east, and of the surrounding mountain ranges to the west and south. The house’s first guests were welcomed in December 1929, even before the building was completely finished.

The Great Depression severely affected tourism to Batemans Bay, so for several years the only guests at Ocean View House were Priests from Chevalier College near Bowral who stayed there during their Christmas vacation.

During World War II, the house was used by the RAAF as a watch tower, with any suspicious maritime or air activity being reported to the nearby air base near Moruya.

For many years, because of its appearance, locals referred to Ocean View House as ‘The Ghost House’ and ‘The Elephant House’. It was a large grey building sitting starkly, alone, atop of the rise (known as ‘Snob Hill’) above what is now Albert Ryan Park.

Albert Ryan lived in the house until 1967, when it was purchased by Merv and Robin Innes.

The house is still occasionally used as a guest house with, for example, crews participating in recent George Bass Surfboat Marathons staying there.

Sources: ‘The Beagle’ 24.3.2018; State Heritage Inventory listing details; Information from Clyde River & Batemans Bay Historical Society and Robin Innes.