Destination: Bermagui, New South Wales

The small NSW town of Bermagui hugs the edge of a sheltered harbour at the mouth of the Bermagui River, 300km south of Sydney. The estuary is embraced to the north and south by a spectacular coastline of long golden beaches and dramatic outcrops of twisted, honey-coloured rocks that form an impressive littoral to the vast Pacific Ocean. 

Bermagui is the closest port to the continental shelf along the NSW coast and is famous for its deep-sea gamefishing and a fleet of commercial trawlers that constitute an important maritime asset for both the local economy and the NSW fishing industry. Its reputation as one of the most secure harbours in the region, with beautiful beaches and good ocean access, make it a popular destination for holidaymakers and recreational boaters in numbers that swell the town’s population many fold during peak season.

The Bermagui River is formed by the confluence of Coolagolite and Nutleys Creeks and flows generally east for 7km to its mouth into the Tasman Sea at Bermagui. Despite being a relatively shallow waterway, with an average depth of just over a metre, the river is navigable for about 5km upstream from the entrance. 

The entrance lies under the lee of Bermagui Point, which affords panoramic views of the once active volcano Gulaga (Mt Dromedary, 800m) to the north and Horseshoe Bay to the east. The bay is sheltered from southerly winds and currents by Point Dickinson and encloses a 500m north-facing beach, backed by a grassy reserve and bounded by steeply angled plates of rock, which have been truncated by millennia of tidal action to form platforms. 

Horseshoe Bay is a popular family playground, with a relatively safe surf beach (patrolled in summer), plenty of parking and close to Bermagui’s main shopping/dining precinct on Lamont Street. A caravan and camping area occupies the slopes of the headland immediately to the east. Most recreational fishing is done off the rocks around the headlands at either end of the beach, with several good spots on the more exposed platforms next to deeper ocean troughs. 

HISTORY

The first port at Bermagui was established in Horseshoe Bay in the 1830s, primarily to serve the local dairy farmers and timber getters, but the town quickly developed into a fishing harbour. William Tarlinton, one of the town’s earliest settlers, dabbled in whaling for a few years but trawling was destined to be Bermagui’s mainstay. A government wharf was constructed on the river in the 1870s and, ten years later, a sea wharf was added to service the many commercial trawlers and tuna boats operating from the harbour.

In 1946, 28 fishermen who were licensed to fish commercially in the Bermagui area founded the Bermagui Fishermen’s Co-operative. Originally located on the eastern side of the harbour at the site of the current mooring wharf, the Co-op was moved to its current location in the 1970s to accommodate the growing number of vessels in the local industry. In its prime during the 1980s and '90s, the Co-op boasted a fleet of 16 trawlers and 12 tuna longliners in the port; the fishing industry was the single largest income earner for the town, employing the majority of people in Bermagui and surrounding areas.

The introduction of the Batemans Marine Park and the restructure of the Commonwealth Fisheries in 2005 severely affected the co-op through the buy-out of many licences, dramatically reducing the number of vessels in the port. Nevertheless, the local fleet continues to be a major supplier of more than 100 species of seafood to the Sydney Fish Market and many Melbourne markets. The Co-op’s reputation for supplying high-quality seafood for more than 62 years was recognised in 2011 when it was awarded Best Supplier (NSW) at the Sydney Fish Market Seafood Excellence Awards.

DEEP SEA GAMEFISHING

Bermagui is a very popular gamefishing destination, with a large fleet of local charter boats and hundreds more private visitors during the marlin season. The warm spring currents bring marlin and yellow fin tuna close to the coast, and charter boats from the harbour take deep-sea and big-game fishers out for the challenge of landing a big one. 

The American author Zane Grey (famous writer of westerns, including the best-seller Riders of the Purple Sage) was largely responsible for establishing Bermagui as a world-famous marlin fishing destination. He was the patron for the Bermagui Sport Fishing Association in 1936 and 1937 and wrote of his experiences in An American Angler in Australia (1937). The town park is named after him and the local hotel has photographs and memorabilia of his time in the town. 

THE HARBOUR TODAY

The harbour was first formed in 1937 by dredging a shallow natural basin near the river mouth. Its entrance has a rock wall on the west side and natural rocks on the east, with good leads that are easily discerned. While the approach to the harbour from the north is generally hazard-free, a bar under the lee of Bermagui Point can make the otherwise easy passage tricky in rough northerly conditions, and uncomfortable when beam-on to an easterly swell while rounding up for the leading beacons. Bermagui is one of several key bar crossings on the south coast monitored by Roads and Maritime Services with cameras that provide live online viewing by the public.

Once through the entry channel, the harbour lies straight ahead or take a starboard course for passage up the river and a modest-sized basin for swing anchorage with good holding in sand, between the road bridge (4.9m HWS) and the rock walls of the harbour. There’s plenty of room here, but a stern anchor could be used to control swing and reduce the risk of dragging with the tides. The channel is navigable by shallow-draft vessels, with shoals that dry to expose sandbanks at low tide, providing good spots for cat owners to sit on the dry for a few hours to get access to the hulls. There are two boat launching ramps – one on the south bank of the river just upstream of the road bridge and the other on the eastern shore of the harbour.

The Bermagui Fishermen’s Co-op operates three wharves in the harbour, offering both permanent and temporary berthing to vessels of all sizes. The Tim O’Shea Wharf is a floating pontoon wharf reserved for charter vessels on the western side of the harbour. The main fixed wharf in the centre of the harbour is used by commercial boats to unload their catch, which is taken directly into the new flow-through designed co-op building and processed with a state-of-the-art refrigeration plant. Another fixed mooring wharf is located on the eastern side of the harbour.

In 2015, the NSW Department of Industry (Lands and Water) completed a $670,000 upgrade of boating facilities at Bermagui Harbour, in two separate stages. First, a new pontoon structure was constructed near the northern harbour wall to create a marina with 16 wet-pen berths. The second stage was the installation of piles in Sinclairs Cove (within the harbour) to support existing mooring structures at the site. These combined works added 46 new berths to the harbour’s mooring capacity. Marine facilities in the harbour are good, with a slipway, fuel (by tanker), chandlery, and repair and maintenance services. 

The new Fisherman's Co-operative building (opened in 2009) adjacent to the main commercial wharf contains a range of facilities that include coin-operated showers and washing/drying machines, several restaurants, a cafe and a wine bar. It also houses the local Marine Rescue base. From the harbour, it’s a short walk to the town’s main shopping precinct for provisioning, with a large supermarket, bakery, hotel, and sundry outlets selling real coffee and great local seafood.

DEVELOPMENT

The 2015 upgrade works at Bermagui are part of a significant investment by the state government in the maritime infrastructure of the South Coast region, which includes a further $785,000 on three key boating projects in the Bega Valley: upgrading the boat ramp at Mogareeka and the jetty at Kianinny Bay (both near Tathra), and upgrading the boat ramp, parking and access road at Beauty Point (on Wallaga Lake). All work will be delivered under the NSW Boating Now program, part of the Far South Coast Regional Boating Plan, which covers the popular boating areas between Batemans Bay and Eden.

In addition, a lengthy consultation process between government, industry and community groups during 2015-16 identified a range of potential projects to be addressed in future planning for Bermagui, as part of the State Government’s Regional Ports Strategy. They include: installation of a vessel sewage pump-out facility; refurbishment of the working jetty, travel lift and boat maintenance facility; increasing the harbour’s maintenance capacity with a hardstand/dry dock; construction of a packing shed for export products, especially oysters; and ongoing maintenance dredging of the entrance.

ALL WELCOME

Bermagui is one of the more attractive and accessible harbours on the South Coast. Historically, it has been a favoured port for commercial trawlers and big-game fishermen. Government-funded upgrades to the harbour’s already wide range of facilities could see this  small and vibrant coastal town become a must-do destination for cruising yachts and other recreational boaters on the NSW Sapphire Coast.

Facilities

Commercial fishing - unloading & berthing Yes

Charter vessels Yes

Recreational & visitor berthing Yes

Slipway & boat maintenance Yes

Car park Yes

Vessel sewage pump-out No

Fuel - diesel Yes

Waste oil collection & storage Yes

Water & electricity Yes

Boat launching ramp & car park Yes

Public toilets Yes

Fresh fish outlet Yes

Retail food & beverage Yes

Key Contacts

CASUAL BERTHS

BERMAGUI FISHERMEN’S COOPERATIVE 

73-79 Lamont St, Bermagui 

P (02) 6493 4575

W www.bermaguifishermenswharf.com.au.

BERMAGUI HARBOUR MARINA

73 Lamont Street, Bermagui

P (02) 6493 5141

ROADS AND MARITIME (NAROOMA) 

P (02) 44762364

BERMAGUI BOAT REPAIRS/BERMAGUI MARINE SERVICES 

P (02) 6493 4026

MARINE RESCUE NSW (BERMAGUI)

P (02) 6493 4506