The Bega Pioneers' Museum has countless reports and stories on local issues. This is a history of Bermagui and district researched by Bertha Davidson in 1982.
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BOATS would bring down ice from Sydney for transporting fish. Later vessels used to bring down water as ballast on the southward journey before the days of Bermagui’s piped water supply.
Gradually with the development of the internal combustion engine, motor transport began to usurp the steamers’ position as the most economical means of transport.
As efficient road systems extended further south from Sydney, so did the shipping routes dwindle. The last ISN boat came to Bermagui in 1952. The most common cargoes were pigs and sleepers, and because of the noise they made as they pulled into the harbour, the boats were often known as the Pig and Whistles.
The development of the southern side of Bermagui, beyond the river, is bound up with the most colourful character, Sam Sinclair. Sam arrived after the turn of the century, 1904 or 1906, and wished to set up business as a blacksmith.
He was not accepted by the society already established on the north side, and so built his own smithy on the south side. By great industry, together with an almost patriarchal patronage of people in financial difficulties, he did much to build up the residential section on the other side of the river, where he exercised some degree of influence over many of the citizens of the town.
He was noted as a strongman, and was the instructor of the famous Don Athaldo, reputedly the World’s Strongest Man.
Many other improvements around the town were achieved with the encouragement and financial backing of Mr Dickinson, who is commemorated at the Blue Pool.
A rather peculiar and profitable industry in the early 1900s was the catching of dolphins for their teeth which were used as currency among the islanders in the Pacific. The local fishing co-operative’s wharf was established in 1947 and made fishing any day of the week a feasible proposition.
Bermagui’s water supply was the result of a movement among a number of progressive businessmen, who saw the benefits of piped water for land use. The movement started in 1948 and the scheme itself began in 1952, with the official opening in 1955. The supply is reticulated by gravitation from a natural spring on the heights of Mt Dromedary.
It seems that Bermagui’s future expansion depends mostly upon tourism, which in turn depends upon fine holiday facilities and especially the big game fishing available here.
