History of Narooma
 

rich in culture and history

The Yuin people were the first inhabitants of the area and Narooma is rich in Aboriginal culture and history. They are the traditional landowners of nearby Wallaga Lake and Gulaga Mountain. Gulaga - named Mount Dromedary by the passing Captain Cook because of its camel-shaped hump - was handed back to Yuin ownership and management by the NSW government in 2006.

Noorooma

The first white settler on the Wagonga Inlet was Francis Hunt in 1839 and the town was named after his property Noorooma – an Aboriginal word for ‘clear, blue water’. The word is spelt differently thanks to an early post office stamp bungle.

Dairy farming, gold mining and sawmilling were all established industries by the 1880s and ship building, oyster farming and commercial fishing all drove the economy through the early 1900s.

Montague Island

In 1881 the lighthouse was completed on Montague Island to provide a much-needed navigational aid to shipping.

Lighthouse Museum

Lighthouse Museum

The key piece of the Narooma Lighthouse Museum is the original light and optical apparatus from the Montague Island Light station.  This Light station was the last manned in NSW and is still the only remaining occupied light station on the NSW coast. The light and optical apparatus were constructed by Chance Brothers of Birmingham, suppliers of most lighthouse equipment for colonial governments at the time
. 
• more on the Narooma Lighthouse Museum

Narooma’s bridge - one of only two bascule span bridges in NSW - was built in 1931 to replace the old barge crossing which linked it the town with Moruya and Batemans Bay to the north.

And around that time, passengers arriving on the south coast steamship service established the town’s reputation as a centre for boating, aquatic sports and big-game fishing • more on fishing today

natural environment

Today the area retains its strong dairy, oyster and fishing traditions and tourism continues to flourish as people increasingly prize Narooma’s pristine natural environment.

 
tilba