Mary Boardman Remembers
The storm of 1975
Who remembers the big storm of 1975? I remember it well. The sea raged and the wind blew and blew and the rain pelted
down.
When it died down it took a few days before we could get onto Boat Shed beach. Saltwater Creek was a fast flowing river and it cut out high banks into the sea. It was hard to clamber along the high side of the creek.
When we finally got to Boat Shed beach at low tide it was a sad and terrible sight. There were rocks everywhere and not much of the beach left. We all thought that our lovely beach would never recover. Some of the "wise men" said it would take 50 years to recover. Within about five months the sand was back and most of the beach back to normal. The first row of boatsheds was badly hit. Many of the sheds that had been undermined by the huge waves looked as though they were about to topple forwards.
Over the next few months there were a good many "working bees" by boatshed owners to push and shovel sand back in front of the boat sheds and then to plant Marum grass to hold the sand. That was 1975. Now I believe Marumgrass is a "no no", but we did not know then and that grass has spread and holds the sand very well. Boat Shed beach seemed to bear the full brunt of the storm.
Before the storm there was a vegetated and level sand bank in front of the boatsheds which enabled boats to be carried along to the northern end of the beach prior to launching. This was washed away completely, but no boatsheds were
lost. Let's hope we don't have a storm like that again, but I suppose it is possible.
Coming to Rosedale
The Boardmans first heard of Rosedale from Dr John Falk, leader of the biochemistry section at the plant industry division of CSIRO. My husband, Keith was a research scientist in the section. We were interested in having a holiday cottage at a beach on the south coast of NSW and John told us about the beauty and other advantages of Rosedale. We were staying at Broulee in the September school holidays of 1965 and were excited to see Rosedale.
Unfortunately, the road from Mogo was blocked by floodwaters and we did not visit Rosedale until 1966. We soon decided that Rosedale was the place where we wanted a holiday house. Contact was made in Canberra with Eric Saunders, an RAAF officer who was about to retire and to be a full-time real estate agent at Batemans Bay. He told us about an inexpensive fibro cottage at North Rosedale that was for sale. The Nicol family wished to sell it because Shirley Baker (nee Nicol) had been drowned at Rosedale the previous year. Keith drove to Rosedale while I was in hospital with new baby Clare and we bought the house. Access to Rosedale was by a dirt road from Mogo. It skirted a swamp and there was a gate closer to south Rosedale that needed to be opened and closed. The Boardman family have had many enjoyable holidays at Rosedale over 40 years. All our children love Rosedale and two with their partners and children are now permanent residents of Rosedale.
Development of Rosedale as a venue for recreation and holidays
Among the first holiday visitors to Rosedale in the 1920s were the Knowlmans. They camped and later built the log cabins. Knowlmans were from Goulburn where they owned the large shop with the slogan "the right shop on the wrong side of the road". Gradually more people found Rosedale and either camped or built simple holiday houses. Mr Miller was the first "developer". He bought land in the area and subdivided it into blocks with an average area of approximately 600 square metres - far too small for the type of house being built here in the 21st century and not compatible with the present zoning of 2ec with a minimum block size of 1500 square metres. For some of the blocks Mr Miller, a builder, designed and built the basics of simple houses with fibro walls and louvred windows. He then sold the houses and the new owners had then finished to their own likings.
Electricity came to Rosedale in the 1950s but there were frequent blackouts. Reticulated water was not available and galvanised tanks were installed to collect rainwater from the roof. Lots of houses had outside "dunnies", a large pit with a wooden seat over it and walls and roof for privacy. By the end of the school holidays in summer time there was a distinct smell over Rosedale. There was no rubbish collection - you filled the car boot with your rubbish bins and drove to a Council tip.
Fascinating bits of furniture found their way to the tip, chairs and small cupboards for example. Tip scavenging was an accepted activity. I remember taking a mattress to the tip and straightaway an aboriginal man picked it up. In the early 1970s water was connected and oh the joy of a good flush toilet connected to a septic tank. Very few houses had telephones at that time.
A local dairy farmer came around every few days with large cans of milk on the back of his truck and we carried our billy cans out to him to be filled with lovely creamy milk. Once or twice a week Charlie Bellette from Mogo came to Rosedale to sell things from his Mogo shop such as vegetables, fruit and lollies and bread and biscuits. Near the entrance to Rosedale was the old cheese factory, and there we could buy fresh eggs.
George Bass Drive was not made until the early 1970s. We could get to Malua Bay by a rough dirt road, and there was a P.O. and general store there. We really were cut off from civilisation at Rosedale prior to the making of George Bass Drive. Tourists found it very difficult to find us. Once George Bass Drive was made we were "on the map".
The holiday-makers of Rosedale came from varied social backgrounds. There were the well-off sheep and cattle farmers of the Goulburn , Crookwell and Taralga areas. There were Goulburn people, eg a dentist, a lawyer and shopkeeper. From Canberra you had people from the ANU and CSIRO, a few public servants, army and air-force families and many Germans and Austrians and a few Dutch.
We united when in the early 70s two migrants from Yugoslavia tried to develop the six acres beside the creek into a caravan park. We were all shocked when we found out that the agent helping these " would-be developers" was "one of us". Anyhow we managed to get the Council on our side and the caravan park did not go ahead.
The proposal for the caravan park stimulated the foundation of the Rosedale Association (its origins are in a former
Association Newsletter)
Some Rosedale identities
There were a group of keen fishermen in the good old days when there were plenty of fish and lobsters. Ken Hoad, a solicitor from Goulburn used to dive into the sea near the rocks at the north end of boatshed beach, wearing a long black plumber’s glove to come up with a lobster. Some of the fishermen who I remember were Andrew Charlton (the famous Boy Charlton, Olympic swimmer gold medallist), Walter Carter, Harry Bell and his wife Jean, Bill Emery, Fritz and Lotte Klebba and John Falk. Dick Bell was a keen rock fisherman- he did not go out in a boat. Most of these people had children and grandchildren who are “Rosedalians”today.
Jean Carter, Walter’s wife was a great hostess in the 1960s and 1970s. Dick and Peg Bell owned most of the land in front of our block. It was known as ‘Bell’s cow paddock’ and surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Maxine and Richard Bell provided a 1950s photograph of Peg Bell and a friend milking a cow at the paddock. I remember that Dick came to Rosedale with a small tractor to clear the "cow paddock" mainly because a resident of Yowani Road complained that the growth was a bushfire hazard.
The Knowlman and Bray families were well known identities. Gordon Bray and Judith Knowlman were married for over 50 years. Sadly Judith died early in 2007.
Gordon was the successful and conscientious President of the Rosedale Association for 23 years. The Brays sold the log cabins and their house (the "Knoll") to the Kidman family in 2005 but Nicole has only been seen on one occasion. Another international celebrity who settled in Rosedale was Anna Russell. Deirdre Prussak was Anna’s adopted daughter and Deirdre gave Anna a lovely happy home in her last years. Anna died in 2006. Deirdre was a visitor to Rosedale in the 1940s and returned as a permanent resident in 1990.
The Moeller family, our Rosedale neighbours were already here when the Boardmans arrived in 1966. I have known 5 generations of Moellers at Rosedale: the great-great grandmother, her daughter Elle and husband Ricard, their son Ulrich and wife Ingebord , grandsons Kim and Max and great grandchildren Eve and Oliver.
Janette Buckham , the headmistress of PLC Pymble and her friend Susan Ollerenshaw rented the “Knoll” for the summer school holidays each year. Janette was a very knowledgeable person and full of fun and a great body surfer.
She had a great New Year’s Eve party every year at the “Knoll”. She was always seen on the beach on the day following the release of the HSC results to proclaim the achievements of PLC students.
Among the interesting people of Rosedale was one Tessa Hodgson. Tessa was a Londoner who had been in Australia for many years. She still had her slight cockney accent. Tessa worked for the ABC before retiring to Rosedale. She loved Shakespeare and could recite many long and famous speeches. Every year she put on a Shakespearian production in either the garden of Fran and Stan Junor or in her own garden. Tessa collected all the youth of Rosedale and had them in her plays. She had a huge collection of costumes and could dress people from Roman soldiers to Lady Macbeth.
* * * * * * *
The storm of 1975
Who remembers the big storm of 1975? I remember it well. The sea raged and the wind blew and blew and the rain pelted
down.
When it died down it took a few days before we could get onto Boat Shed beach. Saltwater Creek was a fast flowing river and it cut out high banks into the sea. It was hard to clamber along the high side of the creek.
When we finally got to Boat Shed beach at low tide it was a sad and terrible sight. There were rocks everywhere and not much of the beach left. We all thought that our lovely beach would never recover. Some of the "wise men" said it would take 50 years to recover. Within about five months the sand was back and most of the beach back to normal. The first row of boatsheds was badly hit. Many of the sheds that had been undermined by the huge waves looked as though they were about to topple forwards.
Over the next few months there were a good many "working bees" by boatshed owners to push and shovel sand back in front of the boat sheds and then to plant Marum grass to hold the sand. That was 1975. Now I believe Marumgrass is a "no no", but we did not know then and that grass has spread and holds the sand very well. Boat Shed beach seemed to bear the full brunt of the storm.
Before the storm there was a vegetated and level sand bank in front of the boatsheds which enabled boats to be carried along to the northern end of the beach prior to launching. This was washed away completely, but no boatsheds were
lost. Let's hope we don't have a storm like that again, but I suppose it is possible.
Coming to Rosedale
The Boardmans first heard of Rosedale from Dr John Falk, leader of the biochemistry section at the plant industry division of CSIRO. My husband, Keith was a research scientist in the section. We were interested in having a holiday cottage at a beach on the south coast of NSW and John told us about the beauty and other advantages of Rosedale. We were staying at Broulee in the September school holidays of 1965 and were excited to see Rosedale.
Unfortunately, the road from Mogo was blocked by floodwaters and we did not visit Rosedale until 1966. We soon decided that Rosedale was the place where we wanted a holiday house. Contact was made in Canberra with Eric Saunders, an RAAF officer who was about to retire and to be a full-time real estate agent at Batemans Bay. He told us about an inexpensive fibro cottage at North Rosedale that was for sale. The Nicol family wished to sell it because Shirley Baker (nee Nicol) had been drowned at Rosedale the previous year. Keith drove to Rosedale while I was in hospital with new baby Clare and we bought the house. Access to Rosedale was by a dirt road from Mogo. It skirted a swamp and there was a gate closer to south Rosedale that needed to be opened and closed. The Boardman family have had many enjoyable holidays at Rosedale over 40 years. All our children love Rosedale and two with their partners and children are now permanent residents of Rosedale.
Development of Rosedale as a venue for recreation and holidays
Among the first holiday visitors to Rosedale in the 1920s were the Knowlmans. They camped and later built the log cabins. Knowlmans were from Goulburn where they owned the large shop with the slogan "the right shop on the wrong side of the road". Gradually more people found Rosedale and either camped or built simple holiday houses. Mr Miller was the first "developer". He bought land in the area and subdivided it into blocks with an average area of approximately 600 square metres - far too small for the type of house being built here in the 21st century and not compatible with the present zoning of 2ec with a minimum block size of 1500 square metres. For some of the blocks Mr Miller, a builder, designed and built the basics of simple houses with fibro walls and louvred windows. He then sold the houses and the new owners had then finished to their own likings.
Electricity came to Rosedale in the 1950s but there were frequent blackouts. Reticulated water was not available and galvanised tanks were installed to collect rainwater from the roof. Lots of houses had outside "dunnies", a large pit with a wooden seat over it and walls and roof for privacy. By the end of the school holidays in summer time there was a distinct smell over Rosedale. There was no rubbish collection - you filled the car boot with your rubbish bins and drove to a Council tip.
Fascinating bits of furniture found their way to the tip, chairs and small cupboards for example. Tip scavenging was an accepted activity. I remember taking a mattress to the tip and straightaway an aboriginal man picked it up. In the early 1970s water was connected and oh the joy of a good flush toilet connected to a septic tank. Very few houses had telephones at that time.
A local dairy farmer came around every few days with large cans of milk on the back of his truck and we carried our billy cans out to him to be filled with lovely creamy milk. Once or twice a week Charlie Bellette from Mogo came to Rosedale to sell things from his Mogo shop such as vegetables, fruit and lollies and bread and biscuits. Near the entrance to Rosedale was the old cheese factory, and there we could buy fresh eggs.
George Bass Drive was not made until the early 1970s. We could get to Malua Bay by a rough dirt road, and there was a P.O. and general store there. We really were cut off from civilisation at Rosedale prior to the making of George Bass Drive. Tourists found it very difficult to find us. Once George Bass Drive was made we were "on the map".
The holiday-makers of Rosedale came from varied social backgrounds. There were the well-off sheep and cattle farmers of the Goulburn , Crookwell and Taralga areas. There were Goulburn people, eg a dentist, a lawyer and shopkeeper. From Canberra you had people from the ANU and CSIRO, a few public servants, army and air-force families and many Germans and Austrians and a few Dutch.
We united when in the early 70s two migrants from Yugoslavia tried to develop the six acres beside the creek into a caravan park. We were all shocked when we found out that the agent helping these " would-be developers" was "one of us". Anyhow we managed to get the Council on our side and the caravan park did not go ahead.
The proposal for the caravan park stimulated the foundation of the Rosedale Association (its origins are in a former
Association Newsletter)
Some Rosedale identities
There were a group of keen fishermen in the good old days when there were plenty of fish and lobsters. Ken Hoad, a solicitor from Goulburn used to dive into the sea near the rocks at the north end of boatshed beach, wearing a long black plumber’s glove to come up with a lobster. Some of the fishermen who I remember were Andrew Charlton (the famous Boy Charlton, Olympic swimmer gold medallist), Walter Carter, Harry Bell and his wife Jean, Bill Emery, Fritz and Lotte Klebba and John Falk. Dick Bell was a keen rock fisherman- he did not go out in a boat. Most of these people had children and grandchildren who are “Rosedalians”today.
Jean Carter, Walter’s wife was a great hostess in the 1960s and 1970s. Dick and Peg Bell owned most of the land in front of our block. It was known as ‘Bell’s cow paddock’ and surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Maxine and Richard Bell provided a 1950s photograph of Peg Bell and a friend milking a cow at the paddock. I remember that Dick came to Rosedale with a small tractor to clear the "cow paddock" mainly because a resident of Yowani Road complained that the growth was a bushfire hazard.
The Knowlman and Bray families were well known identities. Gordon Bray and Judith Knowlman were married for over 50 years. Sadly Judith died early in 2007.
Gordon was the successful and conscientious President of the Rosedale Association for 23 years. The Brays sold the log cabins and their house (the "Knoll") to the Kidman family in 2005 but Nicole has only been seen on one occasion. Another international celebrity who settled in Rosedale was Anna Russell. Deirdre Prussak was Anna’s adopted daughter and Deirdre gave Anna a lovely happy home in her last years. Anna died in 2006. Deirdre was a visitor to Rosedale in the 1940s and returned as a permanent resident in 1990.
The Moeller family, our Rosedale neighbours were already here when the Boardmans arrived in 1966. I have known 5 generations of Moellers at Rosedale: the great-great grandmother, her daughter Elle and husband Ricard, their son Ulrich and wife Ingebord , grandsons Kim and Max and great grandchildren Eve and Oliver.
Janette Buckham , the headmistress of PLC Pymble and her friend Susan Ollerenshaw rented the “Knoll” for the summer school holidays each year. Janette was a very knowledgeable person and full of fun and a great body surfer.
She had a great New Year’s Eve party every year at the “Knoll”. She was always seen on the beach on the day following the release of the HSC results to proclaim the achievements of PLC students.
Among the interesting people of Rosedale was one Tessa Hodgson. Tessa was a Londoner who had been in Australia for many years. She still had her slight cockney accent. Tessa worked for the ABC before retiring to Rosedale. She loved Shakespeare and could recite many long and famous speeches. Every year she put on a Shakespearian production in either the garden of Fran and Stan Junor or in her own garden. Tessa collected all the youth of Rosedale and had them in her plays. She had a huge collection of costumes and could dress people from Roman soldiers to Lady Macbeth.
* * * * * * *
The big washaway on boatshed beach '73
(photo courtesy Maxine & Richard Bell)
June '75 Coz on Boatshed Beach - So much rock exposed
(photo courtesy Maxine & Richard Bell)
Peg Bell and friend milking a cow in “Bell’s cow paddock
(photo courtesy Maxine & Richard Bell)