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HISTORY & PHOTOS of
On this page:BERRARA CUDMIRRAH & SWANHAVEN Berrara Cudmirrah Discovery of ancient aboriginal Cudmirrah Man at Cudmirrah Swanhaven BERRARA
![]() High Tide Berrara Creek Jan 2014
![]() ![]() The original farmhouse built by the Glanville's One of the two original houses at Kirby's Beach still used today as the office and residence for the Caravan Park also built by the Glanvilles Berrara was first
settled in 1866 by Daniel started clearing the surrounding land for farming. His first daughter Berrara had a small
aborigine- group who lived on the abundance of wildlife and fish in the area.
They left in 1910.
In 1890 lot 34 was
purchased in Daniel’s youngest
son, Henry married May Hoffman in 1918 and they continued to run the Glanville
property at Berrara (Lots 1 and 34) Glanville’s had a camping area on the
headland of their property There was one house in the camping area and another
two up on what is now known as Kirby’s beach. These were rented out throughout
the year to visitors who arrived after a lengthy trip through rough dirt track
now known as the The Glanville’s also
have their own cemetery in Berrara . It is located at the back of a home on the corner of
On The Kelly Sisters sub-divided some of their land and
the roads were given the aboriginal names of Moolianga Road, Wirrecoo Street and Myrniong
Grove and one named after the Pope, namely Pope Avenue. This would have been in
the late 1940’s early 1950’s. In 1952, the In the early 1960's electricity was connected. Water was put on in the early 1980's and sewer late 1980's early 1990's. 1969 was also the year that the new road to
Cudmirrah and Berrara was established with the opening of the bridge over In the 1950’s the Kirpsons
also sold the two houses on what is now known as Kirby’s Beach, a local name
given to distinguish the two beaches at Berrara. Locals named it after the then Judge Kirby, (later
Sir Richard Kirby) bought the second house on the headland overlooking this
beach, after his neighbour from Hunters Hill, Mr Roach had purchased the first
home and advised him of the other home being
for sale. The rest is History.
The Kirpson’s sold
out to the new owners in 1990’s who put managers in to run the Photos above: 1.and 2. Berrara camping ground early 1950's . 3. Kirby's beach with the two original Glanville cottages just visible.
Exposed once again in October 2015, is the path that the Cob & Co coaches used to take to cross Berrara Creek. They then entered the old track that was in the bush behind the sandhill on the southern bank. This track was still being used in the 1940's and 1950's by my Dad and family, plus others camping at Berrara, to go shooting rabbits at an abandoned farm know as "Jimmy Johnstons" in an area near what is now Bendalong. In those days you had to bring everything in when you came camping at Berrara. The only things readily available were milk, cream and butter hand milked and churned by the Kelly Sisters. Hense the need to go hunting for rabbits to have a change in diet from fish, fish and more fish. Jimmy Johnstons near Bendalong
I have just come across your web page at www.sussexinlet.info/cbpa/history.html. It is good that someone has put the effort into recording some of the area's history. In your text you wrote... "The I would like to
make a comment on this. My first trip to My father and
mother were good friends with the Popes (I believe I remember the My dad told me
that To get to
Berrara you turned off the I used to spend
time listening to I hope that these memories are useful. I came across the
history of Berrara and noticed the email on Thanks More photos supplied by Jason Smith April 2016, of the original home built by John Alfed Pope at 1 Pope Ave Berrara. He built this home himself. Also pictured is John Pope with his daughter after a fishing trip, no doubt to Kirbys Beach nearby. Jason gave permission to post these photos as they might be of interest to others.
Further photos of Berrara camping ground as it was then
Santa arriving by horse drawn sleigh 1953 & right 1958 Santa arrives on fire truck 2005
High tide Berrara Creek 1959
Walter Hood Monument. ( area locally known as Monument Lake) Included in her inventory was the usual rum and a load of
ceramic tiles for SOUTHDOWN Swan Lake on the north west shore of Swan Lake on the Mondayong Creek and is reached by Old Berrara Road.The Southdown property in the early days was known as "Swan Lake". It was settled by Paul Hoffman, who married Maria Ellmoos. . After his death, Augusta and Herman Hoffman took up residence and remained there till the 1940's when they sold the property. Photo of the turn off at Berrara Road ( now Old Berrara Road) from Sussex Inlet Road circa around the 1940's. Scroll down for more stories or click on button to go back to to
The shop at Cudmirrah and Swan Lake campers and boats 1965 Skiers and campers Swan Lake looking towards The Gap 1965 These photos taken prior to the road bridge being built over Swan Lake
Not a lot seems to
have taken place at Cudmirrah before
To check the water levels of Swan Lake at the official site: http://new.mhl.nsw.gov.au/Site-216425 ![]()
CUDMIRRAH SHOP AND THE COLLIER HISTORY.
Alf Collier outside shop 1951 HISTORY OF CUDMIRRAH BY My father Nicholas (referred to as Nick) Collier won a land ballot of twelve and three quarters acres of land (My sister said it was more acres than that but at present my nephew is currently researching this information.) at Cudmirrah in 1948.This covered the whole of the point area on the eastern side of the lake where the channel entered into the lake. There was no road in, no fresh water, and no electricity it was virgin country. There was a house at Berrara where two spinsters by the name
of To first access the property Dad drove his truck down the
track leading to Berrara and left the track not long after Mondiong creek-
weaving in and out the trees as far as he could until we reach an area that was
flat with tough reeds and grass grew, we named this area "Kangaroo
Flats". From there we walked to the lake and around in the water to the property.
Initially Dad built the road by first lighting a fire then cleared a track
towards the smoke, he had no compass. His only tools were a cross cut saw,
mattock, crow bar, axe, shovel, a strong back, and a strong will. The only
motorized machinery used initially was his truck, he attached a large forked
limb with a steel bar attached to the limb, and he would drag this along behind
his truck and it acted as a grader. In his previous occupation he drove a
grader. He maintained this road in good condition for many years, until he was
informed that if anyone hurt themselves on the road he could be responsible.
From then on he left it to the council; part of the road is now called When we arrived on the property the scrub and the underbrush was so thick you could not see any lake or anything else. Dad told us if we went anywhere to place sticks up against the trees and to break branches as to mark the trail so that we could find our way back. I saw the remains of one of the tracks down by the beach last time I was there. Dad gradually cleared the land without motorized equipment initially), or power tools, he used a brush hook, scythe, steel rake, axe, shovel, maddock, crow bar, and a cross cut saw. The scythe was used as the lawn mower to cut the bracken fern and any native grass. Dad toiled from daylight to sundown. The reserve as it is now called was part of his lease which he cleared with a lot of back breaking effort and kept it like a park. This was where tents or caravans would stay. Regulation were brought in during the sixties that placed this land in the hands of the Council (?) so Dad had to place the tents up the incline further away from the waters edge. To build the cabins dad used the larger trees for timber as the original 3 buildings were made up all of timber except the roof which was second hand fibro roofing from some chook sheds. At the time building material was still in short supply due to the war. We all participated in the loading of the logs onto the ford truck with the help of a block and tackle. The logs were taken to the saw mill in Wandandian. These trees were growing on his allotment area only and were to my knowledge the only ones cut down for use, they also were limited as not many tall trees grew there that were suitable for logging. Majority of trees on the allotment did not grow straight. The first building is not there today but it was in the
western side of the shop and was a long cabin with three rooms, the middle room
was the first "shop". On the shelves mum had a lot of tinned food. In
the first year they made one shilling. They received no money from the
government but we lived on the food that the land provided, and the money from
the properties that they had sold at We were the only ones in the area who had cabins at the time
the Government surveyors were sent out to survey the area so that the area
could be expanded. As children we overheard them talking to mum and dad of a
bridge going over the channel we were very excited about this, thinking that we
would be able to ride our bikes to school! (This bridge was not built until
after I married.) At the time we rowed across the lake to the vacant house that
belonged to the The Eventually when the surrounding land became available for settlement, (On a ninety nine year lease plan bet out by the Government,) Dad kept a map in the shop which he produced and would encourage anyone who may have been interested in the area to apply. As the population increased, so did the need for goods and
services. When Dad applied to have the Post Office they were told they could
not use the name of Dad encouraged the starting up of the Progress Association.
He was the first President of this association. When the shop closed at night
it was used for their meetings and fund raising efforts like housie etc. He was
also the major voluntary person used in the construction of the hall. From
memory this was in Eventually after Dad was successful gaining the necessary support for the phone it was installed. We had the switchboard in the store room of the shop it was a plug in variety. He also encouraged the community to apply for the electricity to be brought to the area. He had great faith in the Cudmirrah area. I have a clipping from the Nowra local paper wrote in the early nineteen sixties period. This better describes his forward thinking. There were three major events that occurred while we were there that would have broken anyone's will to stay. Not long after we had arrive a cyclone hit, during the very strong wind gusts the trees would bend back nearly touching the ground, then, as the wind would ease slightly, they would come back and in doing so snap off. The waves from the sea broke over the sand hills at a gap that was in the in the trees the waves were washing over into the channel at the bend in the channel. This was the first time I saw the waves come through there. At the time the sand hill was very tall. We were totally cut off from the world, if a tragedy had occurred it would have been some time before anyone found us, as it was not genuinely known that we lived there. We were nearly burnt out by fire when bushfires raged around us- twice, at that time we had established ourselves, and it was know we lived there. Mum and dad both had wills of steel. When mum's health began to suffer dad had the shop cut off
in a separate allotment then he sold this at the time it was a newspaper
agency/ Post Office/Garage and general store that sold anything from a paper
clip to an elephant- if one was available. He built a house on the northern
side of the shop as a residence for the caravan park. Eventually even that had
to go as Mum could not physically keep up. When this was sold they built a
house in Yours sincerely
THANKS to Collier descendants: Discovery at Swan Lake of Aboriginal remains - Our Cudmirrah Man On Tuesday afternoon 31st October, 2006 – rather appropriately Halloween,
the remains of a young aboriginal man and that of a small animal which could
have been his pet dog were discovered by a local man on the edge of Shoalhaven City Council have not long finished upgrading this reserve with landscaping, new seats, tables and very appropriate interpretive signs explaining aboriginal occupation of this area. On Wednesday archaeologist I was speaking to Archaeologist Sue Feary from the Dept of Conservation and Rod Wellington, Aboriginal Heritage
Conservation Officer on Friday morning 3/11/06, as they were working on the
burial site. They explained that the banks of the lake used to extend out to where the
stakes are located in the water.(see photos). The young male was buried in a
midden and sand, as was the usual practice around here. He most certainly
predates white settlement and could be thousands of years old. He appeared to
be in good health with no damage to the cranium and there was one broken femur leg
bone, which could have happened later. H.D. Left photo: Sue Feary Archaeologist and Rod Wellington Aboriginal Conservation Officer at the site. Right: To left you can see the sandbagged burial site and the stakes in the water show where the lake bank used to be at the time of the burial. Above photos taken in 1959 showing "The Springs" cabins on the banks of Swan Lake Swanhaven. The photo on the right shows Phyllis Dyball, second from right, showing the Chapman and Twiss families her garden and the Spring, after which this area was named. SWANHAVEN ARTIFACTS. Swanhaven resident Geoff Kleem forwarded three photos of artifacts that only became visible because of the drought and Swan Lake water levels dropping to an all time low as far as long time locals can remember. Geoff wrote in February 2010:
Thought
this might interest you, attached are some interesting aboriginal artifacts
revealed by Swan Lakes falling water level. Opposite Lake Drive some grinding
stones have become visible and further north along the lakes edge there seems
to be the remains of a series of fish traps – definitely man made
structures and very old. I saw them when the lake dropped in around 2002 and
here they are again, Interesting to think that they might indicate the water
level of the lake in by gone times, to be able to work the fish traps would
have to be situated in a tidal situation. Interesting.
Later in the month, after a period of heavy rain the artifacts have again disappeared from view ![]() ![]() Grinding grooves in rock on the eastern bank of Swan Lake and Aboriginal fish traps BELOW ARE TWO EXTRACTS FROM "TIME", A LOCAL COMMUNITY PRODUCED PAPER BETWEEN 1982 AND 1988. IT WAS LATER CALLED THE "INLETTER", ONE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY PHYLLIS DYBALL . "T I ME" SEPTEMBER 1982
RETIREMENT This article is very true and we should look before we leap. We have lived in Swanhaven for 3l years in November and in those days we truly had nothing. No phones, roads or light. I was only 45. No doctors, or chemists a phone call away. Now we have everything, mail, broad, milk, grocery, meat and green grocery deliveries if needed. Charl has been sick for about three months and friends and neighbours have truly been fantastic - thank you all. For unless you reach this stage you'll never know how much it means to have calls, etc. When we first came I lived here for 3 months the first winter and never left this property or saw another face except Charls, So, to me everything now is fairly good. I would like a bus sometimes or a trip to Sussex Inlet now and then. I know I only have to ask, but I would like something definite in the way of payment. So maybe a caring community would be the answer. Keep prices low and I’m sure a lot of "Lonelies" would gladly take advantage of help, and be willing to pay towards time and petrol. "TIME" AUGUST 1983. VALE Goodbye Charl, thank you for the many years of happy
holidays in your cabins. You were there to give friendly advice to the young,
tell a yarn or two with the old, together with your better half Phyl, a friend
and lovely lady to all. CHAS AND PHYLLIS DYBALL purchased "THE SPRINGS" a
property of 17 acres, from the His passing on Sunday, 24th July, 1982 aged 82 years, leaves a void in that small community. ------------------------------------------------------- Sources for information: A story of Sussex
Inlet – Photos: Heather Dunnett, Harold Chapman and others.
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