The Nelligen Progress Association's tourist-y brochure

And here's your link to the Nelligen Progress Association.

From the archives

www.sunlitwaters.com.au

 

The "Clyde Princess" has long since met a rather undignified demise on the shores of the now defunct Sunlit Waters Leisure Retreat, but its memory lives on in these old photographs.

To quote from their old website: "The Clyde Princess is a modern, well equipped vessel specially designed for maximum passenger convenience. She has a flush deck design for easy boarding of passengers without steps or ladders. She offers excellent viewing from all deck areas. Launched in 1981 at Nelligen, her hull is designed to create minimal wash and therefore not disturb the ecology of this unique river system.

The Clyde's longest-serving Ferry Master, Jeff Dunbar, delivers a most interesting and comprehensive commentary backed by over 30 years' life experiences on the river.

A Clyde Princess cruise is your best way to experience the gloriously unspoilt nature of the magnificent Clyde River and its environs."

The "Clyde Princess" used to depart from the old Fishermen's Wharf next to the Batemans Bay bridge and, for $24 for an adult or $12 for a child, one could cruise in just over three hours from Batemans Bay to the historic village of Nelligen and back, while taking in the beauty of the Clyde River, one of the last remaining unspoilt waterways.

It was a bright and moonlit night ...

 

We have no photo of Mavis, however, we don't need one as her image will be forever in our heads and our hearts.

 

And I was just finishing off my evening meal with a bit of runny camembert on a piece of toasted bread, when the phone rang and a man's voice said, "Peter, I have bad news for you: Mavis passed away this morning."

I felt like saying, "you must be joking" but, of course, no-one, least of all her son Jeff, jokes about such a thing. Still, I thought it can not be simply because it can not be! The last time I felt this speechless and thunderstruck was when another late-night caller in 1995 informed me that my best friend for almost thirty years, Noel, had passed away.

Not that we had known Mavis for quite that long; in fact, we may never have met, had it not been for our four-legged friends Malty and Rover befriending Mavis' four-legged friend Suki. That was almost twenty years ago, and an easily-going friendship developed, with Mavis phoning us and us phoning Mavis, or meeting along the lane during our doggy-walks.

The meetings along the lane became less frequent as Mavis found it more difficult to walk, and stopped altogether when Suki passed away. Mavis had loved Suki, and Suki had loved Mavis, and something inside Mavis changed after Suki's passing, and while we still met at her flat, we never mentioned the word "Suki" again, knowing how it would upset her.

Mavis and I continued our telephone conversations which were often and long. We never wasted time talking about the weather but launched right into verbal attacks on corrupt politicians, tax-avoiding fatcats, juvenile and other miscreants, and all the other of the world's woes. To us, bad news was good news which allowed us to wind each other up, topping one piece of bad news with an even worse one. "Are you trying to wind me up, Mavis?" "Well, you started it, Peter!"

Somehow, COVID-19 disrupted all this, our occasional visits and our regular phone chats, and I am already feeling guilty for not having called her more recently than perhaps a couple of weeks ago. We last saw Mavis from a distance on Wednesday the 22nd of July. We had just come back from a COVID-19 test. Mavis was standing outside her door in a white dressing gown which was unusual as she was a fastidious dresser. We waved as we drove by, not wanting to stop in case we hadn't been tested negative, and I tried to phone her when we got home but there was no reply, possibly because she had mislaid her mobile phone.

How we wished she had taken it with her so that we could phone her one last time to say, "Good-bye, Mavis! It was a privilege having been your friends and our lives have been richer for having known you!"

 

Nelligen's "Living Treasure"

 

From the BAY POST of October 2004
Click on image to enlarge

 

"Through Elaine's efforts, and of others like her, the history of the Nelligen district will live on."

And so will we, thanks to Elaine's farm-free eggs and beautiful bush honey. You're a living treasure, Elaine! (... and so say all of us)

 

Elaine's parents' Tea Pot Inn on the Bay side of the bridge in 1962

The same Tea Pot Inn in 1959
(note the hand-operated petrol pump before electricity came to Nelligen)

The Nelligen Tea Pot Inn

 

Quo vadis, Terry?

 

 

Our genial café proprietor Terry is calling it a day! Both his leased River Café and his home on Clyde Boulevard are for sale. What a shame to be selling up so soon after all the hard work he put in!

 

 

Tong, why don't you step into the breach? Just add 炒面 and 北京烤鸭 to the menu, and you'd feel right at home! You already know Rob Routledge; so give him a call and sign on the dotted line!

As for you, Terry, good luck and look after yourself!

This is where we live!

 

 

Click on image to enlarge

 

 

I love a sunburnt country

 

First the fires, then the floods: Nelligen caravan park under water, early February 2020

 

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror The wide brown land for me! Dorothea Mackeller, 1 July 1885 – 14 January 1968