The ferry at Bundeena

Bundeena (including Maianbar)
Delightful town on the shore of Port Hacking
The village of Bundeena can be approached either by ferry or by car. The ferry leaves Cronulla on the half hour starting at 8.30am and returns from Bundeena on the hour with the last departure at 6.00pm. If approaching the Park from the north, via car, turn off the Princes Highway into Farnell Avenue and drive the 23 km through the Royal National Park, following the signs along Audley Rd, Sir Bertram Stevens Drive and Bundeena Drive, to Bundeena. The turnoff into Farnell Avenue is 2.5 kilometres south of Sutherland and 27 kilometres south from Sydney's city centre.

The Park can also be approached from the south by turning off Lawrence Hargraves Drive into Lady Wakehurst Drive at Stanwell Park.

The original inhabitants of the area were the Dharawal people who lived here for thousands of years prior to white settlement (see entry in Things to See relating to the Dharawal Engravings for a little more information on the tribe). The village is named after the local Aboriginal place name, said to mean either 'daughter from the hills' or 'noise like thunder' (the latter is presumed to be a reference to the sound of the waves crashing on Horderns Beach).

The first whites known to have entered Port Hacking were English explorers Bass and Flinders, in 1796. The shallowness of the Port and their inability to locate fresh water sources led them to disregard it as a potential site of settlement. It is said that 'rum runners' (producing sly grog for sale in Sydney) used the caves around Cabbage Tree Creek.

The first official settler at what is now Bundeena was Owen Byrne who was granted 400 acres in 1832. Maianbar developed from an 1841 land grant made out to George Newcombe. In 1863 George Simpson was granted 50 acres at Bonnie Vale, adjoining Bundeena. His son, William, built Simpson's Hotel on what is now Simpsons Bay in the 1870s. 1879 saw the declaration of Australia's first (and the world's second) national park to the immediate south of Bundeena.

The wharf at Bundeena, originally known as Yarmouth Wharf, was built in 1890. Some of the construction work involved the utilisation of local quartzite (formed as a result of a volcanic intrusion), which had also been used by the Dharawal. The wharf was the subject of some controversy as it then served no practical purpose and it was built by the NSW Minister of Public Works who had an interest in a real estate company which planned to sell local land. This led to a public backlash and the NSW government was compelled to investigate the misuse of public money. The wharf was rebuilt by the local council in 1920 because the Cronulla-Bundeena ferry had commenced in 1915. The first store in the area did not open until the early 1930s, a public school was not established until 1949 and Bundeena Road was not constructed until the 1950s.

Today Bundeena has a population of around 2500. It offers a small haven of peacefulness within view of the city. It has two playing fields and tennis courts but essentially offers access to some pleasant natural attractions.

Things to see:  

Bushwalking around Bundeena and Maianbar
Outside the local newsagency (in Brighton Street), for the price of a gold coin, you can acquire the three Bundeena-Maianbar Heritage Walk brochures which describe, in great detail and with excellent maps, three interesting walks in the area, taking in the local scenery, birdlife, botany and historical sites, such as Scotsman's Hill, the protected freshwater wetland of Yarmouth Swamp, the heritage-listed site at Simpson's Hotel, Simpson's House, the sites of Bundeena's first shop and dairy, Bundeena House, Bundeena Reserve, the old cabins at Bonnie Vale, Deeban Spit, the old finger wharf at Maianbar, Aboriginal middens and old ballast rocks along the Yenabilli Point Fire Trail. Plans are afoot to include Spring Gully in these walks in the future.

Dharawal Engravings
The bushwalker can walk to Jibbon Point, which is at the end of a one-kilometre beach track from Bundeena. The appeal of this walk is that it passes some fascinating Aboriginal rock platform carvings. They are quite hard to find as the sign, reading 'Dharawal Engravings', is partially hidden by scrub. The carvings are located on the cliff walk, some 700 metres from the eastern end of Jibbon Beach. They depict killer whales, stingrays, turtles, kangaroos and a well-endowed lawgiver, long ago carved by the Dharawal people of the area. Given that most of the Aborigines had left the area nearly a century ago, and that just across the water the suburbs of modern Sydney can be seen, this is a powerful reminder that, long before Europeans arrived, the Aborigines lived as hunter-gatherers in this area, trading and moving from one freshwater source to another as local resources became temporarily depleted. They are thought to have lived in groups of 12-18 people which traded with each other. Archaeologist Les Bursill has suggested that between two and four of these groups lived in what is now Bundeena. They dined on shellfish, fish, wallabies, birds and plants.

Pause for a moment and reflect on a life which was ruled by fishing and catching crustaceans in the shallow rock pools. Imagine a life where the local Aborigines slept under the gum trees or in the caves, woke with the sunrise and, having caught their meals from seas rich with fish, spent most of the day sitting and talking and enjoying themselves. It must have been as close to paradise as anyone could reasonably imagine. Indeed, the many engravings, drawings, paintings, stencils, middens, grinding grooves and the remains of bush ovens, which are scattered about the entire area (especially along the shores of South West Arm) are taken as a sign that the Dharawal of this area lived a life of relative comfort and that, before white settlement, they congregated here in comparatively substantial numbers - the figure of 900 for the Port Hacking area has been suggested. Their artworks depict food sources, creation themes, birth and Dreaming figures.

Bundeena Reserve
Proclaimed in the 1940s, this area occupies the headland behind the Bundeena ferry waiting shed. There is a signposted path. Wildlife in the reserve includes echidnas, flying foxes, ringtail possums, brushtail possums, blue-tongued lizards, diamond pythons and red-bellied black snakes.

Views
The National Park Fire Break, which protects the eastern border of Bundeena from bush fires, runs north-south between Eric St and Beachcomber Ave. At various points it provides views of the Jibbon headland, Sydney, the sand hills of Cronulla, the Kurnell headland and the National Park.

Scotsman's Hill
This hill, named after four Scottish families that once lived here, is situated atop Brighton St. The coastal dune open forest vegetation is dominated by bangalay eucalypts (aka southern mahogany). There are fine views.

Smooth-Barked Apple
Just inside the entrance to the caravan park (in Scarborough St) is an excellent example of a smooth-barked apple (also known as Sydney red gum) which has been heritage-listed.

Yarmouth Swamp
This protected freshwater wetland (situated along a grassed passage at the southern end of Liverpool St) is a well-vegetated area supporting many birds, such as the red-browed fire tail finch, a number of wrens and other small birds, as well as snakes, particularly in summer (beware of the red-bellied black snake). The botany includes reedlands, sedgelands, casuarina, eucalypts and melaleuca. At this time it is only possible to skirt the swamp but there are plans to build a boardwalk across it.

Simpson's House
The oldest surviving building in the area is Simpson's House, built of sandstone in the 1870s for the family who ran a hotel on what is now known as Simpson's Bay. It is located at the end of Crammond Ave (on the other side of the steps which lead down to the beach).

Bundeena House
Just west of the Bundeena ferry terminal (along Horderns Beach) is a fine old weatherboard home built around 1910 on Gunnamatta Bay. It was disassembled in 1956 and transferred, in sections, to its present location via pontoons, then reassembled. Originally a guesthouse and restaurant it is now a meeting place of the Bundeena House Christian Community and is heritage-listed. Photographs survive of the house in transit along the water.

Deeban Spit
This large sand mass, evident at low tide, adjoins Maianbar. It is home to thousands of soldier crabs. A 19th-century coastal track, known as the 'Old Road', extending south to Clifton, once terminated at the end of the spit. It is said cattle once grazed on the vegetation that used to adorn the sand flats. The spit is still home to a range of birds, including terns, black cormorants, white-faced herons, pelicans, ibis, pied oyster catchers, masked plovers, silver gulls, egrets and, in summer, migratory birds such as sand pipers and eastern curlews.

Maianbar
A reserve at the eastern end of Pacific Crescent is a very pleasant spot by the water with birdlife including superb blue wrens, eastern spinebills and New Holland honeyeaters. The nearby headland is known as Constable's Point Reserve. It was named after the state hangman Marmaduke Constable, who purchased 36 acres, including the headland, in 1859.

Fishermans Bay Wharf is one of five original finger wharves built at Maianbar between the 1940s and the 1960s to cope with the shifting sands of Deeban Spit. It is located at the end of Park Road.

There are fine views of Port Hacking and Sydney's CBD from the cleared land (functioning as a bushfire break) which is located a short distance along the walking track which heads off from the end of nearby Newcombe St. This spot is often visited by magpies, crimson rosellas, lorikeets and currawongs.

Yenabilli Point Fire Trail
Along the aforementioned walking trail (heading off from the end of Newcombe St) there is a marker. If you turn right at this point and follow the rough track into the National Park, you will cross a vehicular access road and see a sign indicating the start of the Yenabilli Point Fire Trail, which leads past Aboriginal middens, an old engraving of initials (J.T.) in a rock, the foundations of an old hut and views over Fishermans Bay to Maianbar. At Yenabilli Point the dark shapes in the water to the west are old ballast rocks discarded by ships entering Port Hacking in the late 19th century. They collected both timber, transported down the Hacking River by barge from Audley, and shellgrit used for making lime (for more details on this fire trail see the Bundeena-Maianbar Heritage Trail pamphlet.

Wattamolla Beach, Royal National Park

The Coast Track
For people wanting to explore the coastline there is the 'Coast Track', a marvellous 26-kilometre walk from Bundeena to Otford, which commences, like a number of National Park walks, from the end of Beachcomber Ave. The Coast Track runs the length of the park's coastline, passing through Little Marley and Marley Beach, Wattamolla, Burning Palms and Garie. Unless you are fit, fast and foolish it is too long to attempt in one day. The real bushwalking enthusiasts tend to complete the walk in two days while daytrippers, happy to do the first section, walk for two hours, reach Little Marley and Marley Beach, and then return to Bundeena.

Of all the trails in the park the Coast Track is the most spectacular. It follows the sandstone cliff-line which affords beautiful, panoramic views over the Pacific Ocean. In winter and spring the low scrubland and heath is alive with magnificent displays of wildflowers. The smell of the wildflowers, the tang of the winds blowing up from the ocean, the sculptured sandstone of the headlands and caves, the sandy beaches, and the sounds of the birds, all contribute to make the Coast Walk an unforgettable experience.

Day walkers should recognise that Marley Beach is dangerous for swimming (an unfortunate characteristic of many of the beaches south of Sydney - be warned!) but Little Marley Beach, which is further south, is a popular swimming and fishing spot. Little Marley also offers a camping area and a freshwater stream. The walker can then take the track up onto the plateau and head back to Bundeena. For more information (and camping permits) ring (02) 9542 0648.

Wattamolla Beach

The Royal National Park (see separate entry on the Park for more information)
It is possible to approach the Parks' beaches via car, by following Bundeena Drive out of Bundeena, then veering south, or by taking Farrell Avenue, Audley Road and Sir Bertram Stevens Drive from the Princes Highway, or visitors can head north through the Park from Stanwell Park, via Lady Wakehurst Drive.

All walkers in the National Park should pay particular attention to its rich diversity of fauna and flora. The park has six major vegetation regions. Spread throughout the park are substantial pockets of rainforest which most commonly occur in the valleys of the Hacking River and along the coast south of Garie. They can be easily identified by the stands of cabbage tree palms, coachwood and sassafras, as well as wonga-wonga vines, wombat berry, settler's flax and shiny fan ferns.

Along the beaches, in the sand dunes and on the rocky cliff faces, walkers will find hairy spinifex (a typical dune grass designed to withstand the severe southerlies which blow on this coastline) guinea flower, coast rosemary, and, on the back dunes, the ubiquitous coastal tea-tree. Beyond the rainforest and coastal areas are stands of blackbutt and Sydney blue gum surrounded by hopbush, blady grass and a twining creeper with dark red flowers called dusky coral-pea.

Around Bundeena, the vegetation is mostly coastal dune open forest and freshwater wetland forest, incorporating bangalay eucalypts, smooth-barked apple (among the Park's oldest living plants and also known as Sydney red gum), swamp oaks, melaleuca, casuarina, reedlands, sedgeland, red bloodwood, forest red gum, scribbly gum, cabbage-tree palm, rough-barked apple, coastal banksia, Sydney golden wattle, blueberry ash, cheese trees, sweet pittosporum, tuckeroo, coastal teatree, grey mangrove and river mangrove.

Burning Palms from Governor Game Lookout

Eating
Bundeena has a small shopping area where the visitor can purchase fish and chips at The Fish Exchange and fresh fruit juice, excellent coffee and a range of takeaway foods at the Passionfruit Cafe.