South West Rocks

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Tuesday was my ‘sky birthday’!Seven years of skydiving and hopefully many more to come!



Sadly we weren’t going to be getting any airtime but we had a nice day, milling around the town of South West Rocks. This part of the New South Wales’ mid north coast is truly beautiful! You can’t help but warm to it right away.



We visited South West Rocks’ “#1 Cottage” (formerly a boatman’s cottage but now the maritime museum and visitor information centre), went for a walk on the beach and spent some time at Horseshoe Bay. In the evening we drove out to the nearby town of Arakoon and the Arakoon State Conservation Area. This place is a little piece of heaven on earth! It is one of the most peaceful and beautiful spots I’ve ever seen: there were (very tame!) kangaroos grazing, lovely views (especially during sunset) and a stunning secluded rock-sheltered beach. There were actually residential houses dotted around the area – how wonderful to live in such an idyllic spot.



Wednesday was the day we fulfilled our dream of scuba diving at Fish Rock. We came very close to grey nurse sharks (apparently they are mostly as gentle as Labradors but it still feels funny to have such powerful beasts – with their teeth showing! – swim by). We also saw wobbygong sharks (love the name; they’re so gorgeous and one swam right underneath me), crayfish (beady red eyes staring at ya!), a lion fish, a giant turtle and a bull ray… aside from heaps of other fish whose names we don’t know. Poor Dean got a little sea sick during the surface interval and after the second dive… and his excuse for having a nana nap in the afternoon and sleeping a full 12 hours that night was that he had ‘lost vital nutrients overboard’, haha. The crew from South West Rocks Diving Centre were lovely and fun. Thanks for a great day guys.



Being ANZAC Day, we remembered those who served, and those who still serve. Lest we forget.



On Thursday morning we visited the Trial Bay Gaol which has a really interesting history. In 1816, some Sydney convicts stole a boat (the ‘Trial’ after which the bay is named) but their bid for freedom literally ended up on the rocks. Several decades later it was decided that the bay required a breakwater for protection during storms and the jail was built to house prisoners who were brought here specifically to construct the breakwater. Prison reform centered around rehabilitation of offenders that were well behaved and nearing the end of their sentence. These men were allowed to live and work under more lenient conditions, gaining trade skills and even earning a modest income. Such prisoners began constructing the breakwater in 1889 but bad engineering, storms, gale force winds and washaways made progress very slow. By 1903, ships were a lot sturdier which meant that the breakwater was no longer needed. Construction was abandoned and the jail closed. The only other time that it was used was during WWI when it housed German “internees”, basically civil prisoners of war. These were well-educated academics, professionals and craftsmen of German decent who were seen as potential spies. Many of them were second or third generation Australian and had already made Australia their home. It was impressive reading about how proactive they were during their time at the gaol though: they formed clubs, built a tennis court, negotiated access to the beach, established businesses and put on weekly theatre shows. One of the men, Kurt Wiese, illustrated the theatre programs and drew cartoons… and later became a successful illustrator and children’s author, producing the illustrations for the original Bambi in 1928!



Our late morning drive out of South West Rocks was beautiful. It had been raining on our way in but, with the sun shining, we were able to see this gorgeous area in all its glory. The streets were lined with quaint farm houses (we stopped at a couple to buy free range eggs and fresh veggies, and had nice chats with the lovely ladies selling them) and everything looked so lush. Probably because of all of the rain!

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