Shellgrit Bay
Remnants of Shellgrit Bay Jetty 2015. EM
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Shellgrit Bay is the name that locals call the second longest beach on Broulee Island. From 1920 the Broulee Island shellgrit was being taken to Sydney (virtually as ballast) where it was used to make lime for the building industry. Known operators of the shellgrit works were Clemence Jones who worked at Cooks Timber Mill, and whose wife ran the boarding house that they owned where 175 Annetts Parade is today. Then a Mr McMillan, and then in 1922 a Finnish man named Uno Kusonen and his partner H. Norman took out a 28 year lease and also began a small-scale tourism venture in which they hired out a motor launch, tents and fishing gear. |
After World War 2, a double-bow motor launch run by Captain Tim and Tom Butler
was used, it was an ex-army landing craft, but only had one of the two
engines left in it. It transported the shellgrit to a jetty in the
The River from where it was trucked to Sydney. There are entries for the Butler brothers in the A to Z page.
To enable the launch to be loaded at the island, a 17-20 metre jetty was built together with a light rail track that carried a small dump truck at what had become known as Shellgrit Bay, some scant remains of the jetty are still there.
For the sake of creating another myth or legend, we suggest that the light rail track would have been made from rails salvaged from the breakwater (see breakwater in the A to Z page) out to Cone Rock (The Mossy Point), some other rails from there ended up at boatsheds along The River. Photos of remnants of the rails are at the page for Cooks Timber Mill.
In 1960-61 the Emmotts (where Moruya's Harris Scarfe is in 2015) delivery driver Les Nelson used to collect shellgrit, that had been bagged by people working Shellgrit Bay on Broulee Island, and take it back to the shop for sale to people who kept chooks.
To enable the launch to be loaded at the island, a 17-20 metre jetty was built together with a light rail track that carried a small dump truck at what had become known as Shellgrit Bay, some scant remains of the jetty are still there.
For the sake of creating another myth or legend, we suggest that the light rail track would have been made from rails salvaged from the breakwater (see breakwater in the A to Z page) out to Cone Rock (The Mossy Point), some other rails from there ended up at boatsheds along The River. Photos of remnants of the rails are at the page for Cooks Timber Mill.
In 1960-61 the Emmotts (where Moruya's Harris Scarfe is in 2015) delivery driver Les Nelson used to collect shellgrit, that had been bagged by people working Shellgrit Bay on Broulee Island, and take it back to the shop for sale to people who kept chooks.
