THE MAUINE PISHING-GROUNDS. 



rather than risk the chance of landing their catch in good 

 condition at the metropolitan market. The lake entrance 

 being very shallow could be availed of only at certain states 

 of the tide, and as the plan, which had been attempted, of 

 sending the catch by boat to a steamer off the bar was found 

 to be unsatisfactory, the only other available route was via 

 Newcastle. This route involved a journey of some twelve 

 miles over a very rough road, the transference of the fish to 

 the steamboat, and at the Sydney end from the steamboat by 

 cart to the fish-market. The result of all this handling and 

 shal\ing, especially in the summer months, was, as might be 

 expected, that a large proportion of the consignm.ents were, 

 on arrival at the market, unfit for human food. 



All this difficulty is now of the past, the Chinamen have 

 for the most part disappeared and European fishermen have 

 taken their places. These latter have taxed the resources of 

 the lake to what might be supposed their extreme limits, yet 

 year after year it is found at the top of the list, both in the 

 quantity and the quality of its yield. 



This water, the largest in the lake system which occurs 

 between Newcastle and Sydney, is of great expanse, it is 

 nearly twenty miles in length, with an average width of four 

 mileS; and its contour is so broken by deeply-indented bays 

 and recesses as to give a perimeter of about 300 miles. 

 As with but comparatively small exception the whole extent 

 of the shores are suitable for seine-hauling, it will l^e readily 

 conceived that it offers unparalleled advantages to the pro- 

 fessional fisherman. 



Tuggerah Beach Lakes. — South from Lake Macquarie, 

 and separated from it by a flat strip of land about a mile in 

 width, begin the series of lakes known as Tuggerah, they are 

 three in number, Manmurra, Budgewoi, and Tuggerah proper, 

 they are all connected, and together have an extreme length 

 from north to south of fourteen miles. Tuggerah is the largest, 

 and the principal of the series, it has communication with the 

 sea at a small rocky opening in the beach about seven miles 

 north from a well-known boat harbour called Terrigal. 

 The entrance is very broken and shallow, and is rarely avail- 

 able, even for open boats ; still, however, during the pre- 

 valence of westerly winds which blow off the coast fisher- 

 men occasionally navigate it. Now, however, these waters, 

 which, like Lake Macquarie, abound in flats, shallows, and 

 long foreshores, and are fish-producing to an enormous 



