Smugglers' beach

I don't know why, but Corrigans is the only beach around Batemans Bay where near-whole shells are washed up, though even here not in great numbers. It's a good, firm beach for a walk, and that's where I strode today while the pharmacist across the road (a diaspora brother from Wick, Scotland) made up my prescription.

That's Snapper Island in the background, named after the British Navy cutter under the command of Lieutenant Robert Johnston (another Scot) when he visited these waters in 1821. Batemans Bay itself, by the way, was named by Captain James Cook in 1770 after Nathaniel Bateman, captain of Lord Coleville's ship the Northumberland at the time Cook was serving on her as master.

In the days when Batemans Bay was a major logging port - there were 13 timber mills along the Clyde River (also named by Johnston) - steamships arriving from Sydney often carried contraband, mainly grog and tobacco. The packages were thrown overboard at Snapper, picked up by local boys and stored in a cave. Later, in the dead of night, they landed them on Corrigans by rowing boat, and it was then sold to timber cutters along the Clyde.

These days, Snapper Island is home to Little Penguins and Sooty Oystercatchers, as well as offering summer shelter to grey nurse sharks (which rarely attack humans, and then only in self-defence). Although not yet a nature reserve, landing on it is not allowed.