FISH AND FISHERIES. 129 



can now only be taken in very small quantities, and witliout any degree 

 of certainty. The evidence given by fishermen who can remember the 

 large hauls of fish once taken from the beaches of North and Middle 

 Harbour, Rose and Double Bay, not to speak of the fiats up the Parra- 

 matta River, affirms this. 



Tlie fisheries of New South Wales were classified into three large 

 groups by the Report of the Royal Commission, which described them 

 as follows : — 



(1.) The Home grounds — comprising those lying between Cape 

 Three Points and Sydney to the North, and between Sydney 

 and Wattamolle to the south. The most remote grounds 

 between these limits represent tolerably well the terminal 

 points for all open fishing-boats during the summer months. 



(2.) The Middle grounds — which to the north would be comprised 

 between Cape Three Points and the inlet known as Cape 

 Hawke — and to the South would include those lying between 

 Wattamolle and Wreck Bite. These represent the present 

 limits both of open-boat fishing and of supply by steam coasters 

 during the winter months. 



(3.) The Outer grounds, which would embrace the grounds north 

 of Cape Hawke and south of Wreck Bight as far as the north- 

 ern and southern boundaries of the Colony, or sa.y as far as the 

 Tweed River to the north and Twofold Bay to the south. 

 These grounds are too far distant from a market to be avail- 

 able for the supply of fresh fish, until ac least some such fishing- 

 vessels as those recommended later on in our Report shall 

 engage in the trade. 



(1.) The Home Grounds. — Within this section the embouchure and 

 lower waters of the river Hawkesbury, better known as Broken Bay, 

 situated about 16 miles from Port Jackson Heads, has always ranked, 

 and perhaps ranks still, as the most extensive and most productive of all 

 our fishing stations. The beaches of Pittwater, the Hawkesbury proper, 

 and Brisbane Water, present the most favourable conditions for the net 

 fisherman, and the upper reaches of the river and the mud flats of its 

 various tributaries, especially at the places locally known as Mullet 

 Island Creek, Mooney, Mother Marr, Berowa, and Mangrove, have sup- 

 plied to the Sydney market for many years past, and may under ])roper 

 restrictions and protection long continue to supply, enormous freights of 

 the choicest of our river fishes, such as black and sea bream, tarwhine, 

 black-fish,whiting, flathead, tailors, garfish, and the large sea and flat- 

 tailed mullet. 



Equally prolific have the outer or schnapper grounds at and near the 

 mouth of this river been to the line fisherman. These are to be found 

 in great variety from Cape Three Points to the South Head of Broken 

 Bay. Off the North Head of the Bay, and again off Little Head, 

 situated a few miles to the southward, there occur several schnapper 

 gi'ounds of high renown, which a few years ago kept as many as a dozen 

 or more boats in full work for the Chinese fish-curers, who were then 

 engaged in a large business on Schnapper-man's Flat, Pittwater, but who 

 have now entirely abandoned Broken Bay as a fishing station. Twenty 



