FISH AND FISHERIES. 183 
The following extract from Mr. Oliver’s paper on the Fisheries of the 
Colony describes the grounds from Botany to Wattamolle :—“ At and 
off the entrance of Botany and Curranulla Head there are several well 
known schnapper grounds, and about two miles within Curranulla 
bight (the “Bate Bay” of our charts) isa famous ground known to 
fishermen as the Mary, Merry, or Shamrock Rock, for it goes under all 
these names. It is a sunken flat rock, or series of rocks, with about 8 
to 11 fathoms of water, situated at the point of a reef which runs from 
a little boat-harbour called ‘Doughboy,’ about half a mile to the 
southward. Tons upon tons of schnappers have been taken off this 
ground, which however is difficult for a stranger to find, as the 
crossbearing marks are not easily described. The whole of this Port 
Hacking or Curranulla Bight is one vast nursery and feeding-ground 
for fish, and the harbour and river of Port Hacking at its southern 
extremity is second only to Broken Bay as a net ground. Here are 
caught generally the first garfish and mullet of the season, both which 
fish come to us from the southward, generally seeking the smooth 
harbour waters after heavy south and south-easterly weather, and, after 
a few days continuing their progress northward, and putting in at every 
inlet or river-mouth lying in their course. A cable-length or so distant 
from ‘Jibben Head,’ the southern point of the entrance to Port 
Hacking, lies Jibben ‘bumbora,’ a fishing-mark of great repute, but 
not now much resorted to for school-fish, #.¢., the schnapper of about four 
to six or seven years old and found on the offshore grounds in large 
schools, as distinguished from the native, which is the same fish at a 
later stage of growth, but frequenting different haunts (the shoals 
off headlands, sunken rocks, and river points. Passing south, the 
inshore grounds off Marly Head and Wattamolle are next reached, and 
this latter point forms the Sydney and Botany fishermen’s Ultima 
Thule. Indeed, these southern fishing-grounds are rarely troubled, 
except in the winter months, when the wind generally blows off the 
shore, and is fair for both the up and the down trip.” 
(2.) The Middle Grounds (North).—Between Cape Three Points, a 
few miles to the northward of Broken Bay, and the inlet commonly 
known as Cape Hawke, a section comprising about 100 miles of coast- 
line, both the breeding and offing grounds are perhaps more abundant 
and of greater extent than are to be found anywhere on our coast. In 
the first place we reach, soon after passing Terrigal High Land—Point 
Upright of the charts—the famous Tuggerah Lakes. This series of 
Jakes or salt-water lagoons, consists of Tuggerah (proper) and two smaller 
connected lakes, locally known as Budgewi and Manmura. They are all 
comparatively shallow, perhaps averaging rather less than 2 fathoms, 
though in some places, ¢g., near Woollahra Point in Lake Tuggerah, - 
the depth is considerably more. Tuggerah is by far the largest of the 
series, being about 9 miles long by about 24 in width. The others are 
much smaller. 
The sea connection with Tuggerah is at a small rocky opening in the 
beach about 3 miles north of Point Upright, and about 7 from the well- 
known boat harbour called Terrigal. A dangerous line of reefs runs 
out in a line about E.S.E. from the entrance, terminating in one of 
‘the most treacherous “bumboras” on the coast. This entrance is 
