Beach number NSW 343 Beach length 150 m | Phone +61 2 9542 0648 | |
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Hazard rating Access Wattamolla Road (transport); Royal National Park Coast Track (foot) Similar Garie Beach, Wollongong Botanic Garden, Wollongong Head Lighthouse, Science Centre & Planetarium, Nan Tien Temple | ||
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Wattamolla is the name of a cove, lagoon, and beach on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney, within the Royal National Park.
Contents
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History
Wattamolla is the local Aboriginal name of the area, meaning "place near running water". That name was recorded as Watta-Mowlee by Matthew Flinders, but is today spelt Wattamolla.
Flinders, George Bass and a boy, William Martin were exploring in a small boat named Tom Thumb when on the evening of 29 March 1796a southerly gale (known as a southerly buster in Sydney), forced them to seek shelter. They had been travelling northwards after having explored as far south as where Wollongong now is and in the darkness were using the cliffs and the noise of the surf to steer parallel with the coast.
At ten 'o'clock, the wind, which had been unsettled and driving electric clouds in all directions, burst out in a gale at south, and obliged us to get up the anchor immediately, and run before it. Matthew Flinders
Flinders, "steering with an oar", thought the dark outline of cliffs ended and believed he saw breakers, so he turned the boat towards shore. Catching a large wave, they "shot across a sandbar" and in moments were in the calm sheltered water of the lagoon, which in relief they named Providential Cove.