17 November 2012 - Nowra Showgrounds, Shoalhaven, NSW

Late yesterday afternoon, soon after 5 pm, dozens of people descended upon the hall just up from our camp site, many hanging about by the door. A little later, we could hear music and we wondered whether we were up for one of those nights. Happily, we were not disturbed but that could have had a lot to do with the fact we watched television until late. It does however confirm the fact that this is not the most secure or private camping ground. I guess you get what you pay for.

It rained again overnight and still didn’t look that promising after breakfast. We spent some time attending to business emails and other related tiresome matters, packed up the eski with lunch and headed out regardless. 

After popping into SuperCheap Auto for the third time in two days, Chris managed to buy the right sized socket fitting to attend to maintenance of the hot water heater solonoid; something that is totally outside my ken.We then headed south west to Nowra Hill, passing through HMAS Albatross, a Defense Department facility initially established in 1941 as an Australian Airforce base. The base has had a multitude of roles through the intervening years, all of which can be discovered online, however today Albatross serves as home base for the four helicopters squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm and for the Navy Aviation Group. It is also is home to the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the Royal Australia Historic Flight. As we threaded our way through the base in search of the road to take us to the Nowra Hill lookout, we passed a great jungle of towers and structures, part of the parachute school. We were soon past the summit of the Hill and the road that appeared to be an entry to military construction rather than a lookout for tourists. There was no “Lookout” sign even though it is marked on our Shire map and mentioned in the Shoalhaven Holidays brochure. As we descended we could see that the Hill would have indeed offered wonderful views over Nowra and the surrounding countryside, despite the rain cloud still all about, however we were averse to turning around and daring to venture into military territory.

Instead we carried on, intersecting the Princes Highway and headed for Callala Beach on the northern side of Jervis Bay. We drove about this settlement and then the adjacent settlement of Callala Bay, both lovely little holiday spots.

Point Perpendicular Lightstation

Further east, we passed through the forest of the Jervis Bay National Park, a park that takes in bits and pieces of land here and there all through the region. Soon we were travelling south east between Jervis Bay and the Tasman Sea to Currarong, a small coastal fishing and holiday village with a population of about five hundred people. It sits on the Tasman Coast, but tucked back into the south of the Crookhaven Bight. The rocky beach gives way to the long white sandy Warrain Beach which stretches for about ten kilometres all the way north to Culburra Beach. We sat above a rocky ledge at a picnic table and ate our lunch, admiring the view and marvelling yet again at the pelicans wheeling about in the sky above us, catching the thermals and flying simply for the hell of it.

 Our prime destination for the day was the Beecroft Peninsula, or more particularly the Beecroft Weapons Range (BWR) which includes approximately 4,200 hectares of the peninsula. BWR is owned and occupied by the Royal Australian Navy and has been regularly used for Defence weapons and other training activities since the 1800s. The area is of course closed to the public for obvious reasons, however does normally open up most weekends and public holidays. The Visitors Centre advised us on arrival that the Range would be open this weekend, from late Friday afternoon through to Sunday afternoon, and so naturally we were keen to make the most of the opportunity.

Self-appointed gueardian of the loos

Five hundred hectares are permanently out of bounds however corrigated gravel roads pass through the low scrublands to Point Perpendicular and to beaches on the northern shores of Jervis Bay. The Point Perpendicular Lightstation is located on the seventy five metre high sandstone cliffs on the northern headland of Jervis Bay. Construction was commenced in 1883 and completed fifteen years later. The lighthouse across the bay on Cape St George had been built and operational since 1860, quite some time before the impressive construction on the northern side. Here at Perpendicular Point, the lightstation was a complex collection of buildings: the lighthouse itself, head keepers residence, duplex cottage for assistant keepers, signal house, flagstaff, post office, stables and outbuildings, a jetty and fuel store. The stone buildings are all fenced off from the public however one can walk around the rather elegant lighthouse. The dangerous cliffs are also fenced off some distance back from the edge and the area accessible to the public is quite limited. 

In fact entry to the whole peninsula is well guarded at the manned gates where one is required to answer several questions before being given a pass to enter and more importantly to exit. This is of course so Defence can account for the fact that everyone is out before they resume their bombardment. We were amused by the inaccuracies on our pass, most importantly the fact that we were apparently three rather than two on board. I could well imagine that had something disastrous befallen us, they would have spent weeks searching for a third body.

After visiting the Lightstation, we drove down to Honeymoon Bay, a beach that had been recommended to us by the walkers we met several days ago up in the Morton National Park. What an absolutely gorgeous spot! This is a crescent shaped rocky bay with an opening of about twenty metres to Jervis Bay and very suitable for safe family bathing.

And families there were today, families galore. Honeymoon Bay is the one camping spot on the peninsular. Hundreds were there, many just arriving today making the most of the improved weather. In fact since lunch the sun had come out and the day looked altogether different. We inquired about the cost of camping here where there are portable toilets and rubbish bins and nothing else. The tariff is $15 per site for two people and $5 for every extra person. It is an absolutely fabulous posse which probably justifies the charge for few services, however given that it is only ever open for business on Friday and Saturday nights, it means the takers are going to mainly be families with children and groups of young people. While we have nothing against these groups, having been there ourselves once upon a time, we prefer not to submerge ourselves unnecessarily these days.

Lighthouse at Crookhaven Point

We headed out of the Range, and headed further north to Culburra Beach, down to Penguin Head, around Orient Point and out to Crookhaven, where we walked out to the derelict lighthouse at the end of Crookhaven Heads, crossing the narrow neck of land linking the head to the mainland. From here we had fabulous views to both the north and south.

Fishing boats at Greenwell Point

Heading home, we drove across flat dairylands, lush and so green, and popped into Greenwell Point where we walked along the shore and see where we had been less than an hour before. The waterways here and about fascinate me with their lagoons, lakes, inlets, creeks, rivers, bays and estuaries. Greenwell Point is home to a small fishing fleet, the most northern in the shire.

We came on back to Nowra driving north through more dairy farms, as far as the Shoalhaven River and turned west, following the river up through Terara, the original site of Nowra, and the sign that announced that Urban Nowra has a population of 32,000.