Wattamolla, also known as Wattamolla Beach, is a cove, lagoon, and beach on the

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

coast south of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, within the

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a state park, protected national park that is located in the Sutherland Shire local government area in Southern Sydney and in the City of Wollongong local government area in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Au ...

. It stands at approximately 12.5m tall. Many tourists are drawn to the giant cave situated 500mm below the waters surface and can only be accessed by diving under and following the shaft of a tunnel submerged with water into the cliff face for roughly 2m until a massive opening has you standing in a giant hidden cave.

Geography

Wattamolla is the junction of two creeks: Wattamolla Creek, which flows in from the northwest, forming a lagoon behind the beach, and the smaller Cootes Creek, which joins the lagoon from the west via a waterfall. A rocky outcrop lies behind the beach between the main channels of the two creeks. Due to the interaction of waterflow from the two creeks as well as tidal forces, the size of the lagoon and the configuration of its outlets to the sea change continuously. The outcrop in between the channels of the two creeks is usually, but not always, connected via the beach to either or both banks of the cove. Works completed in 2022 have created a fenced lookout area above the waterfall, and a newly landscaped picnic area. Road access is to the southwest of the lagoon, and access to the beach from the car parking area is usually via stairs that descend to the outlet of Cootes Creek in the east, but (where the outlet is carrying large volumes of water) sometimes change to a seasonally placed bridge across the west of the lagoon.

History

Wattamolla is the local Aboriginal name of the area, meaning "place near running water". That name was recorded as Watta-Mowlee by

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

, but is today spelt Wattamolla. Matthew Flinders,

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early life Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George B ...

and a boy, William Martin had been exploring the south-coast from Port Jackson as far as

Lake Illawarra Lake Illawarra (Australian Aboriginal languages, Aboriginal Tharawal language: various adaptions of ''Elouera'', ''Eloura'', or ''Allowrie''; ''Illa'', ''Wurra'', or ''Warra'' meaning pleasant place near the sea, or, high place near the sea, or, ...

, in a small boat named ''Tom Thumb''. Returning on the evening of 29 March 1796, a southerly gale forced them to seek shelter. Flinders, "steering with an oar", thought the dark outline of cliffs ended and believed he saw breakers, so he turned the boat towards shore. Catching a large wave, they "shot across a

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or ...

" and in moments were in the calm sheltered water of the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

, which in relief they named Providential Cove. On 15 May 1797, three members of the crew of the

Sydney Cove Sydney Cove (Eora language, Eora: ) is a bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, one of several harbours in Port Jackson, on the coast of Sydney, New South Wales. Sydney Cove is a focal point for community celebrations, due to its central ...

were spotted by a fisherman on Wattamolla Beach, having trekked from the Ninety Mile Beach Victoria on route to Sydney, to seek help rescuing their crew. The headland to the south of Providential Cove is named "Providential Point", but was previously named "Boy Martin Point". The headland to the north is named "Martin Head".

Gallery

File:Wattamolla panorama.jpg , Panorama of Wattamolla. Click to enlarge. File:Wattamolla - panoramio (4).jpg, Waterfall File:WattamollaMK.JPG File:Wattamolla - panoramio.jpg, Lagoon with beach in background. File:Wattamolla - panoramio (5).jpg File:Wattamolla - panoramio (1).jpg, Closeup of lagoon File:Wattamolla M.K.JPG, The beach

References

External links

Historical images
of Wattamolla on

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

{{Beaches of New South Wales Bays of New South Wales Beaches of New South Wales Lagoons of Australia Sutherland Shire

Geography

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links