Stories from Batemans Bay locals, past and present, as told to the Bay Post/Moruya Examiner at the Batemans Bay reunion on May 6 and 7.
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PAUL HELMORE: In the early days it was great entertainment for the young fellas to come down and get on the punt and back off again.
Everything that came to the South Coast or left the South Coast up until 1952, came by ship. General freight, any food – everything, from here south – the only real means of transport was by ship. They went into liquidation about the same time road transport was starting to make headway.
Every now and again, especially in the spring time, you'd get big fogs roll down the river. It was a natural phenomenon from the warm water from the ocean going up there and the cold surrounds, and it rolled down like a cloud.
The ships just off Snapper island, they used to wait for the tide to come in and my old man sent me out with somebody in a car because he had this bloody dog that knew more about nautical experiences than most people.
We’d go out along the breakwall and the dog would bark so that the ship could hear how far off they were. These days with GPS and radars, that's not at all necessary, but that's how a lot of those old seamen got up and down this coast without a lot of trouble.
There are so many changes to the river bank now, other than the approach for where the punt used to come in and the Innes Boatshed. The carpark upstream from the boastshed, if you look at early photographs, the river has shrunk 60 to 70 feet to make a carpark there.
The whole town has gone and turned on its ear. If you go and look at old photos you will wonder what the hell happened to it. I’ve lived in paradise all my life and didn’t realise until the secret got out and everybody else wanted to get here.
Life in Batemans Bay as a kid was really a gift. When you come down here in the latter years, you’re lucky to see anybody you ever saw before. You get grey hair, bent over and lose your teeth and it’s hard to recognise anybody.