Bega River-Tathra

silver

silver

Forum Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2008
Messages
1,018
Location
Tathra, Far South Coast, NSW
Car Year
2005
Car Model
Forester
Transmission
Manual
Just thought i would post this for anyone that knows this area.
The Bega River mouth closed about 10 days ago and all the water is backing up. The river mouth was only about 30mtrs wide in the time i have seen it but there is a sandbank about 150mtrs that seperates the rest of the river from the sea. The locals tell me that about 3-4 years ago the river closed and when they opened it the whole sandbank went and people were surfing into the river mouth.
That would be fantastic ....the fish would be pouring into the river and hanging around out the front. Can't wait for some heavy rain!!
I hope to be putting the boat in on Friday and will get some pics from the inside and i'll post some up of before and after it closed.
Pretty interesting how the whole of the beach has changed in such a short time.
Different sandbanks and wave breaks all along the beach which is probably 2.5 to 3klms long.
 
Gidday Silver,

Tathra is an interesting spot - the beach/river landscape is forever changing. We had a trip a few weeks ago... sad trip to a funeral, but brightened by our visit to the beach where I used to spend alot of time as a kid.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/musicsubarus/8883865693/

At the warf end of the beach, it looks like there has been alot of dune planting with the grasses that stop everything from washing away. At different points, the area behind here used to be a kind of lagoon which went right up to the road.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/musicsubarus/8883864681/

At the end of the day, it was too dark to take pictures at the river mouth.... but I'm damn sure that we saw a Silver Subaru ... parked... its owner off fishing somewhere :-)

We enjoyed very much the change of landscape. Bega Valley is truly beautiful :-)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/musicsubarus/8883948403/

Regards,
 
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Gravel Rocks, as I'm sure you see through your travels and pics everywhere you take the time to look at landscape and nature, we truly live in a beautiful world. It is so good to be able to share all parts of it through this fantastic forum :-)
Regards,
 
I've said it before....The South Coast and particularly the Far South Coast are very underated in my opinion. A bit more rugged than the North Coast with FAR less people at the right time of yesr. Sure the weather is cooler but also in summer there is less humidity and it's not as hot as up north. Yesterday when i was walking along the beach there was very little wind,the sun was out and it was around 19-20c and it was just a fantastic Autumn day.
The longer i saty here the more i enjoy it. I find it truly astounding how many times i have been down to put my boat in and find 1 or 2 or 3 other boats out. Sometimes NONE!!!:ebiggrin: I have been up the Bega river and not seen another person for 3 or 4 hours. Just fantastic. I had a crowded day once with about 10 boats out and i was not happy:lol:, i thought they had a bit of a hide fishing on MY river:raspberry:.
I can't wait until i bring my finances under control and REALLY enjoy the place next year....not that i am at all unhappy at the moment mind you.
Anyone thinking of a break could do far worse than putting Tathra and the surrounding area on their list and if you do come over and want a trip up the river let me know...i'll be more than happy to give you a tour.
By the way...if the subaru didn't have a boat trailer on the back it probably wasn't me. Anyway mine isn't hard to recognise. Not many around with a Subaxtreme nudge bar and Lightforce spotties on.
I've got to add that i reckon Tathra has more Subarus than i have seen in any place i have been...there are heaps of them around here.
 
I hear you Silver... about the space and solitude that sometimes a person just needs. Since I have moved to Brisvegas, I do notice that. You've gotta drive at least an hour and a half in any land direction from where I am to find yourself "alone".

We used to know Tathra at all times of the year, in Summertime the locals would be overrun by Mexicans (those from South of the border).... and the van park ran on both sides of the road nearly all the way down to the river mouth. I don't know if it gets as busy in the summer as it used to. The pub has had some class acts over the years around New Years.

Learned about tides as a 9 year old when I decided to walk around the rocks to the wharf... got nearly there when the tide came in and had scale the cliff face to the top :biggrin:
 
I like the peace and quiet and can go without talking to anyone for any amount of time. I'm fairly sociable but also happy to just stuff around and enjoy things by myself so a place like this is right up my alley.
Even while i am posting here i can hear the surf pounding,no yapping bloody dogs and in the mornings quite a few different birds.
I don't usually feed birds but today i started to try to get friends with a Magpie that hangs around. Just something to do really and i will see if i can get him/her close enough to give it a scratch. I reckon Magpies are great birds and i have a real soft spot for them. I love the noise they make.
I have not been here over a Christmas break but they tell me it is packed but i have been here since mid Feb and in my experience it's fairly quiet most of the time. Even the last school holidays were very peaceful.
All up...the best spot i've lived in for many a year.:ebiggrin:
 
When the mouth opens up try going for a few mulloway...they hang out at the mouth waiting for the fish getting washed out. Try a live salmon or mullet bridle rigged :biggrin:
 
I'll certainly be doing that. I don't have 'proper' beach fishing gear but i do have a set up that will do the job.
 
Finally took some pics today and will try to post 'before and after'. The quality might not be very good as it is fairly overcast today and i some from the car and also had the camera on the wrong setting.
The river is really filling up and we have had a reasonable amount of rain and hopefully more to come. I would think that a lot of water still has to make its' way down from up the Bega valley so that is good.
I can't wait for the river to break through the sandbank. Fishing should be fantastic.





The river mouth.






The boat ramp has disappeared but i don't have a 'before' shot.





I put these round the wrong way but the bottom shot is one when i caught a decent flathead and you can see the cars in the background and the top shot is taken from that parking area.





The two above are just a couple i took from the beach today. I thought the point might be working and as yet i have not seen the famous Tathra break in action.
The beach is maybe 2.5 to 3klms long and the river mouth from the first shot was about 35-50 mtrs wide. Just by it closing the whole beach has changed. The surf is different all along and the sandbanks have all changed. I've been able to see it do all this from my porch and it's really amazing the effect the river closure has had.
 
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Looks like it would be hard to take, Silver.

But I guess someone's got to do it ... :poke: :iconwink: :biggrin: :rotfl:
 
I did the pics and post in a bit of a hurry and will edit it later so it makes more sense.
Yeah, it's a hard life here:ebiggrin:. From my hangout it would take me 5 mins at the most to walk to the Tathra wharf in the pic...probably about the same from home, to walk down to the start of the beach...my work is about 1.5klms away and the boat ramp about 3.2klms from home.
I keep my camera in my fishing bag and have to remember to put it in the car as i missed some great shots earlier in the week just north of Merimbula.
 
While i was up in Bega on Monday they opened the mouth of the river as the road was flooding so i missed it.
Anyway i had taken a better pic of the mouth when it was closed and went down on Tuesday and took another one.
Before..


After..


Nice bird...i think it is some kind of Petrel.

 
yup... just how I remember it. Always changing and absolutely beautiful. Thanks heaps for sharing Silver :biggrin:
 
Thanks for remembering. Long time since I posted.
I still live there. Love the place. Never enjoyed living anywhere better.
I didn't know anything about it as I was about 1 hour from getting off the boat at Devonport, Tassie. I'm down here for 3 weeks and now back at the library in Devonport doing stuff. Apparently it's pretty bad. The place I live is OK but I've heard the school has gone and the petrol station also...they are only 100mtrs away.
My mates house could well be gone as a house only 2 doors down was on fire when he left. There are a few people that are not yet accounted for and I reckon the golf club and caravan park I stayed in would have to be burnt.
Pretty devastating for a little place.
I think the Tathra pub has also be destroyed. The new fellow only just finished spending well over $1 mill restoring it and it was going well.
The fire turned back and was heading to Bermagui which means heaps of places would not stand a chance.
I'm just about to check out the latest news.:question::shrug::cry:
 
Oh no - not the pub! These fires just have no respect at all :-(
 
At this stage I really don't know. My mate reckons the school has gone but my landlady told me the school is OK and she has family in the RFS. I think it is all just a big mass of confusion at the moment.
 
Yes, I heard on the news that the school is OK; thankfully no one reported as missing so far!
 
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