CSIRO LAND and WATER The Ecology of the Tuggerah Lakes Historical Records By Anthony Scott CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra Technical Report 4/99 January 1999 &6,52/$1'DQG:$7(5 7KH(FRORJ\RIWKH7XJJHUDK/DNHV +LVWRULFDO5HFRUGV %\$QWKRQ\6FRWW -DQXDU\ 3URGXFHGE\6DLQW\ $VVRFLDWHVDQG&6,52/DQG :DWHU IRU:\RQJ6KLUH&RXQFLO &6,52/DQGDQG:DWHU&DQEHUUD 7HFKQLFDO5HSRUW-DQXDU\ 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Phil Morley of the Wyong District Museum & Historical Society who spent a great deal of time searching through their records for relevant documents and photos. Jo Allison and Kathryn Duchatel also spent many hours searching through old newspapers at the Mitchell Library in Sydney and the National Library in Canberra. I would like to thank Wyong Shire Council for their financial support and in particular Greg Walkerden, Danny Roberts and Sharon Cummins. Both their technical assistance and their patience at what seemed to be a never ending task was greatly appreciated. Also Geoff Sainty of Sainty & Associates for his project management and technical contributions to this project. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the foresight of Edward Stinson in spending so many years collecting and recording a wealth of valuable historical records that he subsequently published in his books “A Pictorial History of Wyong Shire”. We are all indebted to him for this tremendous effort. Addresses; Anthony Scott Geoff Sainty Greg Walkerden CSIRO Land and Water Sainty and Associates Wyong Shire Council GPO Box 1666 PO Box 1219 PO Box 20 Canberra ACT 2601 Potts Point, NSW 2011 Wyong NSW 2259 Front cover photo; View of Tuggerah Lakes from Killarney in Sept 1927. (Mitchell Library) Abstract The Tuggerah Lakes are on the Central Coast of NSW and consist of three interconnected coastal lagoons, Lake Munmorah, Budgewoi Lake and Tuggerah Lake. There has been rapid urban development over the last 20-30 years and this has resulted in a number of environmental pressures being placed on the lakes’ ecology. One of the problems facing the managers of the Tuggerah Lakes is the lack of scientific data available that provides an indication of what the lakes were like in pre-development times. To overcome this problem, a project was commenced which had the aim of collecting any historical information which might provide an insight into the long term ecological changes of the lakes. Information was collected from historical documents, old newspapers, and by interviewing residents who have lived in the area for up to 90 years. This report presents the information collected from historical documents. 2 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 4 1.1 THE TUGGERAH LAKES ..................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 OBJECTIVE......................................................................................................................................... 4 1.3 METHOD............................................................................................................................................ 7 2 SETTLEMENT OF THE TUGGERAH LAKES................................................................................. 8 2.1 ABORIGINAL SETTLEMENT ............................................................................................................... 11 2.2 THE FIRST EUROPEAN SETTLERS (1820S – 1870S) ........................................................................... 13 2.3 DEVELOPMENT ACCELERATES AFTER THE OPENING OF THE RAILWAY (1880S – 1950S)................... 16 2.4 URBAN DEVELOPMENT (1960S – 1990S) ......................................................................................... 23 3 WEED GROWTH, SAND AND MUD ............................................................................................... 29 4 FISH, PRAWNS AND OTHER MARINE SPECIES........................................................................ 34 5 FISHERIES RECORDS – ANNUAL REPORTS.............................................................................. 44 5.1 LIMITATIONS TO THE CATCH DATA................................................................................................... 44 5.2 TOTAL FINFISH CATCH ..................................................................................................................... 45 5.3 TRENDS FOR THE MAJOR FINFISH SPECIES CAUGHT .......................................................................... 46 5.4 TOTAL PRAWN CATCH...................................................................................................................... 51 5.5 OTHER INFORMATION IN FISHERIES ANNUAL REPORTS.................................................................... 51 5.6 EXTRACTS FROM FISHERIES ANNUAL REPORTS............................................................................... 52 6 FLOODS AND THE OPENING OF THE ENTRANCE CHANNEL.............................................. 75 7 BIRD LIFE............................................................................................................................................ 85 8 MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.............................................................................................................. 91 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 94 3 1 Introduction 1.1 The Tuggerah Lakes The Tuggerah Lakes are on the Central Coast of NSW and consist of three interconnected coastal lagoons, Lake Munmorah, Budgewoi Lake and Tuggerah Lake (Figures 1a,1b). The three lakes cover a total area of 80 sq km and have a perimeter of 110 km. The largest of the lakes is Tuggerah Lake with an area of 54 sq km (IDC 1979). The lakes are shallow, the average depth being 1.9 metres. There is only limited interchange of water between the lakes and the sea through a narrow channel at The Entrance, and hence tides in the main body of the lakes are negligible. The total area of the catchment serving the lakes is 670 square kilometres (IDC 1979). Freshwater flow into the lakes comes mainly from Wyong River, Ourimbah Creek and Wallarah Creek. The lakes contain a diversity of aquatic plants and animals and are not only an important aesthetic and recreational resource but also support a local fishing industry. 1.2 Objective Only forty years ago, the Tuggerah Lakes district consisted of a few small villages and towns which catered for the annual influx of visitors during the summer holidays. Over the last few decades these towns have been transformed into large urban centres, with an associated population increase from 13,000 in 1954 to over 100,000 in the 1990s. This rapid development has resulted in a number of environmental pressures, and in the late 1980s - early 1990s the Tuggerah Lakes suffered from eutrophication, with macroalgae blooms being common within shallow nearshore habitats. Management actions to alleviate the excessive macroalgal growth resulted in the “Tuggerah Lakes Restoration Project” in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, this project was only partially successful. It is now clear that to develop management plans for the lakes, a better understanding of their ecology is required, and in particular how the lakes have changed since European settlement. Hence, the objective of this project was to: “Investigate the ecological history of the Tuggerah Lakes. The results of the study will assist in the management of the estuary and its catchment by providing an insight into ecological changes since European settlement in the region.” Information was collected from historical documents, old newspapers, and by interviewing residents who have lived in the area for up to 90 years. This report presents the information collected from the historical documents. Other reports which present the information collected from the newspapers and the interviews have also been produced (Allison and Scott 1998, Scott 1998). 4 Figure 1a: Tuggerah Lakes in 1941 Colongra Colongra Ck Bay Elizabeth Bay Wallarah Ck Top Lake Lakeside Green Pt Budgewoi Buff Pt Middle Lake Gorokan Kanwal Wallarah Pt. Toukley Pipeclay Pt Canton Norahville Wyongah Beach "Cedar Wharf" Bungaree Norah "Shithole" Wyong Tuggerawong "Eely" Norah Head Tacoma Wyong River Rocky Point "Deep Dig" Bottom Lake "The Sandhills" Chittaway Pt Ourimbah Ck Pelican Is. Terilbah Is. The Entrance North Berkeley Vale sand bar (Dec 41) The Entrance Long Jetty Killarney Chinamans Beach Tumbi Saltwater Ck Umbi Ck 0 5 km Towns and villages 5 Figure 1b. Tuggerah Lakes in 1998 Colongra Doyalson Lake Colongra Bay Elizabeth Blue Bay Haven Munmorah Power Station San Remo Wallarah Ck LAKE ay ew MUNMORAH re F le st Charmhaven ca ew N y- ne yd S Green Pt Budgewoi Buff Pt BUDGEWOI LAKE N Gorokan Toukley Pipeclay Pt Wyongah Canton Noraville Beach Wyong Tuggerawong Tacoma Norah Head Wyong River Rocky Point TUGGERAH LAKE Chittaway Pt Ourimbah Ck The Entrance North Berkeley Vale Newcastle Long The Entrance Tuggerah Lakes Jetty Sydney Killarney Vale Tumbi Umbi Ck 0 5 km Towns and suburbs 6 1.3 Method Historical records were collected from the following sources; • Local history books. A large amount of research has already been undertaken by a number of local historians (for example, Stinson and Swancott) and the books they have published contain a wealth of valuable information. This was the major source of information for this