Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia
is the home of
The Time Warp River Cruise Company.
Private cruising, with a maximum of 4 passengers!
It's the personal service you so richly deserve!
www.jervis-bay-time-warp-boat-cruise.fun ​​​
JERVIS BAY
Before we start to extol the attributes of Jervis Bay, we need to clear up the age-old dispute of whether it is Jarvis Bay or Jervis Bay. Common sense tells that the correct pronunciation emphasises the "e" but the English experience focuses on the "a". We say stuff it and we use the local term "JB".
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PRE CAPTAIN COOK
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The early Aboriginal people in the Jervis Bay area where those of the Dharawal-Dhurga language group. Many Aboriginal tribes still have very strong connections to Jervis Bay.
The Beecroft Peninsula, in particular, is said to be the location of numerous important Aboriginal sites.
North of the peninsula, towards Currarong, is a remarkable offshore rock formation called Drum and Drumsticks, a significant religious site and also the home to a large colony of sea lions.
The Aboriginal people believe in the existence of two figures who inhabit the Beecroft Peninsula: Bundoola & Spundula, creatures who control ocean resources and weather patterns, respectively.
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ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS
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European influence began in Jervis Bay in 1791. Lieutenant Bowen of the Atlantic named it Port Jervis after his superior, Admiral John Jervis. Prior to this, the bay had been dubbed St. George’s Head by Captain Cook in 1770.
Over the next 80 or so years, the area was surveyed and visited, and a lighthouse was built in the 1860s at Cape St. George. Except for the small village called New Bristol (now at Bristol Point) for the light keepers and families, it wasn’t until the 1880s that the first true European settlement was established at Huskisson. This settlement was basically a small plot of land used for sheep and cattle grazing, as well as a fishing business.
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The Cape St. George lighthouse was found to be located badly, following several wrecked ships turning left after passing the light, seeking the sheltered waters of JB, so a new lighthouse was built on Point Perpendicular, commissioned in 1898, then the Cape St. George lighthouse was subsequently de-commissioned.
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Even when no longer operating, the lighthouse caused problems. Although not displaying a light it was confused with the Point Perpendicular Lighthouse to the north resulting in several near tragedies. To prevent this problem the Australian Navy shelled the lighthouse, resulting in the ruins that can be seen today.
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The Jervis Bay area continued to grow steadily, with the decision to open the Royal Australian Naval College at Captain’s Point in 1911. Shortly followed the opening of a primary school in 1914. Since the arrival of the naval college, Jervis Bay has maintained its status as an important naval area.
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During World War II, JB was used a a staging anchorage for troop and other ships leaving Sydney, before heading on the perilous journey to England and the Middle East. Two of the fastest ships afloat at the time, the passenger liners Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, were converted into troop carriers. They would be loaded with supplies and troops in Sydney Harbour and then under cover make the run to Jervis Bay. The trip was always perilous as the east coast was patrolled by marauding enemy submarines.
To protect the ships and the bay from a sea bound enemy attack, strategically placed land-bound torpedo launching tubes, two sets, four tubes in total, were placed on the north side of the bay. One just inside Point Perpendicular and the other further to the west. The rusting remains of these torpedo tubes are prominent landmarks still today.
A gun emplacement was also installed onto Bowen Island in an attempt to catch any invading navy in a cross fire.
Huskisson, the main tourist centre of JB, was named after William Huskisson, an English parliamentarian whose main claim to fame was that he was killed at 60 years of age by George Stephenson’s pioneering railway engine, The Rocket, at the opening of the Manchester railway.
This happened in 1830 well before Huskisson was named as a settlement. Huskisson was also a naval officer in his earlier life and was Secretary of the Colonies when he was killed.
The town of Huskisson was surveyed in 1840. In that year convicts built a bush track from Braidwood down to JB so that sheep pastoralists could cart their wool down to ocean shipping. Although surveyed in 1840 the first settlers belatedly arrived at Huskisson in 1861.
George Dent arrived and started his shipyard in 1864. Dent pioneered shipbuilding on JB. In later years they had contracts to build ferries for Sydney’s public transportation system. The Lady Denman is one of a number of ferries that the Dent family built and she was in service from 1911 to 1979.
When she was taken out of service she was returned to Huskisson, then restored to become the centrepiece of the Lady Denman Maritime Museum from the year 2000. The museum has recently changed its name and is now the Jervis Bay Maritime Museum as it includes so much more than just the Lady Denman ferry boat. The museum covers the Aboriginal and white history of JB and Huskisson, the shipbuilding industry and local shipwrecks, and is well worth a visit. The museum facility includes large ponds with local marine life and a boardwalk through the mangrove forest.
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Jervis Bay Marine Park covers approximately 215 km2 and spans over 100 km of coastline and adjacent oceanic, embayment and estuarine waters. The park was established in 1998 and its zones and management rules commenced in October 2002.
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JB is surrounded by National Parks, with Jervis Bay National Park in the north, Morton National Park to the west and Booderee National Park to the south. Because of this, JB has a natural and undeveloped coastline for much of it's perimeter.
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Jervis Bay's clear waters are largely due to the joining of warm water from the East Australian Current and cooler water from the Bass Strait. With periodic upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters from the nearby Continental Shelf, these combined currents flow clockwise around the bay, completely flushing it out every 24 days or so.
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Landforms provide a variety of habitats including deep water cliffs, exposed and sheltered sandy beaches, rock platforms, rocky reefs, soft-sediment bottoms, kelp forests, small estuaries, expansive seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and open ocean.
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The region supports over 230 algae, hundreds of invertebrate and over 210 reef fish species, and sharks, rays, many marine mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened species. Aboriginal people have had strong ties to the Jervis Bay area over thousands of years and many culturally significant Aboriginal sites exist within the Marine Park.
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Following are links to some of the many attractions in the JB area:
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