Houseboats at Bulahdelah - a popular entry to the Myall Lakes

Myall Lakes
Beautiful and underdeveloped area of lakes and coastal waterways north of Sydney
'Myall' is an Aboriginal word meaning 'wild'. It was apparently applied by Europeans to Aborigines who had had no contact with whites. While European contact with the area has become constant and extensive, particularly since Myall Lakes National Park was declared in 1972, there is still considerable 'wildness' about this area.

The Myall Lakes National Park incorporates 31 562 ha of headlands, forests, swampland, forest fringes to the west and 10 000 ha of coastal lagoons south of Wallis and Smiths Lakes. These lagoons - Myall Lake, Boolambyte Lake, Two Mile Lake and The Broadwater - are linked by narrow straits which form a continuous waterway joined to Port Stephens by the lower Myall River. To the east, between the lakes and sea, are high sand dunes with a good and varied vegetation cover. Along the seaboard are 40 km of almost unbroken beaches. This natural combination has produced one of the largest, most complex and most interesting lake systems in Australia.

The area was inhabited by the Worimi and Birpai tribes and there are still numerous middens on the coast and on Broughton Island. The Aborigines were driven away when white settlement began in the mid-19th century with the arrival of timbergetting and boatbuilding enterprises and the establishment of small communities at Nerang, Bulahdelah, Neranie, Mayer's Point and Bungwahl.

In 1866 Rachel Henning preserved, in her diary, a record of her journey down the Myall River and a snapshot of the area: "It is quite unlike the deep, dry rocky river-beds of the North, but very beautiful in its own way, not very wide but very deep, so that the great timber-punts can go up and down it, and the banks shut in by very dense forest so that you cannot see any light through the beautiful vines hanging from the trees and dipping into the water. Then you turn a corner and come upon a bright little clearing with a settler's wooden house and a patch of maize and perhaps an orange orchard or a vineyard. Further on the forests shut you in again."

Boat traffic virtually ceased with the development of roads and there was relatively little economic activity in the area until sandmining began in the late 1960s leading to major struggles between conservationists and mining interests. Partially as a result of that conflict 15 000 ha of land was reserved as national park in 1972.

Myall Lakes with the porch of the Bungwahl Anglican Church in the foreground

There are a variety of ecosystems in the park and hence a diversity of plant communities and wildlife. Myall Lakes Park is today a very popular holiday spot and its extensive waterways are ideal for sailing, surfing, canoeing, power-boating, kayaking, windsurfing, sunbathing, safe swimming, camping, waterskiing and bushwalking. There are river, lake, fishing, deep-sea fishing and dolphin-watch cruises available, as well as boats and houseboats for hire at Tea Gardens, Bulahdelah and Nelson Bay. There are canoes, sailboards, power boats and catamarans for hire at Myall Shores campground.

There are four main access routes into the park. The principal road is the Mungo Brush Road via Hawks Nest. The road is sealed all the way to the ferry. There are also five signposted beach access tracks for 4WD vehicles which depart from Mungo Brush Rd (they are only permitted south of The Big Gibber).

Things to see:  

Myall Lakes National Park - Some Walks
Mungo Track
The park starts 4.3 km north of Kingfisher Ave, Hawks Nest. There is an information board at this point. You can walk the 21-km Mungo Track to Mungo Brush, a popular camping and picnic spot on the southern shore of The Broadwater, the southernmost of the three Myall Lakes where the bird life is prolific. It starts from a signposted spot 750 m along the road from the information board.

Dark Point Walk and Wildflower Walk
8 km from the information board is the start of the Dark Point walk to the right and the Wildflower Walk to the left. The former leads over a series of impressive sand dunes to a beautiful and unspoiled coastline looking out over Broughton Island. Both Broughton Island and the waters off Little Gibber are noted diving spots. The former is also well-suited to fishing and bushwalking. However, access is only provided in the summer season from Nelson Bay and, sometimes, Tea Gardens. Otherwise you must make your own way. Little Broughton Island is an important breeding location for a number of birds. The Wildflower Walk, and the park in general, are best between August and October.

Mungo Brush Rainforest Walk
The Mungo Brush Rainforest Walk departs from the northern edge of Mungo Brush campsite and is essentially a loop walk but it can be as long or short as you like as the paths branch off to other paths. The first portion of the walk takes you to the lakeside and then turns off into some dense and quite beautiful rainforest. You will notice that you are passing from sand to stone, from paperbark to rainforest, indicating that you are stepping on to one of the area's ancient volcanic peaks. Mungo Brush itself is a small rocky hill that was once an offshore island. There is plenty of wildlife about the area. Amongst the sedges, broad-leafed paperbark, swamp oak, coogera and brush bloodwood are lorikeets, wattle birds, honeyeaters, bowerbirds, kookaburras, green catbirds, little terns, ground parrots, the jabiru and tawny frogmouth, eastern grey kangaroos, echidnae, lace monitors, koalas, sugar gliders, ring-tailed possums, carpet pythons, flying foxes and bandicoots. There are also marsupial mice and dingoes in the park. There is a boat ramp at Mungo Brush and caravan sites are available from September 15 to October 15 and from December to April.

Other Walks
It is another 2.1 km along Mungo Brush Rd to the White Tree Bay campsite and another 2.2 km to a parking area on the right where you can undertake the walks to Johnsons Hill (4 km), Tickerabit (8 km) and Shelly Beach (11 km). Experienced guides can be hired for all local walks, tel: (02) 4997 0872, or phone the Tea Gardens Visitors' Centre.

The ferry from Hawks Nest into the Myall Lakes National Park

Bombah Point and the Upper Myall River
It is 20.7 km from the information board at the park boundary to the ferry at Bombah Point. Every half hour from 8.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. it will transport you and your vehicle the 40 m across to Myall Shores, (formerly Legges Camp) now a private camping ground, caravan park and convention centre, tel: (02) 4997 4495. From this point a walking track leads to the mouth of the Upper Myall River and a very poor quality unsealed road leads to the township of Bulahdelah, 15 km distant.

Camping in the National Park
There are numerous camping grounds, day-use areas, caravan parks and picnicking sites. Three of the recognised camping areas have fresh water: Yagon (3 km south of Seal Rocks), Mungo Brush (19 km north of Hawks Nest via Mungo Brush Rd) on the south-eastern shore of The Broadwater where the water is shallow and you are close to Mungo Beach, and Violet Hill (9 km from The Lakes Way along Violet Hill Rd) - a deep-water site where there is a boat ramp, a wharf and a lookout. Other campgrounds are the shallow waters along the northern foreshores of The Broadwater from just north of Mungo Brush around to the ferry, Korsmans Landing on the western shore of Two Mile Lake (access off Lakes Rd out of Bulahdelah), and several sites which are only accessible by boat or foot - the River Mouth (where the upper Myall empties into The Broadwater), Johnsons Beach on the southern shore of Boolambyte Lake, Tickerabit and Shelly Beach, both on the southern shore of Myall Lake. There are fees but bookings are not essential.

Myall Shores (formerly Legges Camp) at Bombah Point (at the end of Lakes Rd) is now a private camping ground, caravan park and convention centre, tel: (02) 4997 4495. There is a ferry service from here across to Mungo Brush from 8-6 daily. There is also a day-use area just north of Mungo Brush on the eastern side of the road with toilets and barbecues.

There are boat-launching ramps at Bombah Pt, Mungo Brush, Violet Hill and Bungwahl, a township at the northern end of Myall Lake (access via The Lakes Way). There are also ramps at Nerong, Bulahdelah and Hawks Nest-Tea Gardens.

Accommodation and Eating
For all Accommodation and Eating connected to Myall Lakes refer to the specific information provided in the entries on Bulahdelah, Hawks Nest, and Tea Gardens.