Jervis Bay

Jervis Bay is about an hour south from our Holiday Park. Tim wanted to go there to scuba dive, but then he said maybe he'd do Bare Island or Hawaii instead.

See, Jervis Bay has a lovely reputation. But Mission Impossible was filmed around Bare Island and Tim's all into action movies like that. He'll probably love bragging to his friends. Oh yes. I went scuba diving where Mission Impossible was filmed.

Then Hawaii is where Lost is filmed. Tim can feel all high and mighty about himself, because he dived among the land of the Kate, Sawyer, and Jack.

Who knows though? Maybe he'll change his mind and do Jervis Bay. Or maybe we'll go anyway just because it sounds fun and beautiful.

Let me go learn about the wonderful world of Jervis Bay.....

Already I have found something shocking and fascinating. Jervis Bay is not part of New South Wales. It's a separate territory. It's part of the ACT (Australian Capital Territory)

According to Lord Wiki, Jervis Bay is named after a British guy name John Jervis. He was an admiral in the Royal Navy. At one time, he fought in the War of American Independence. If the guy had fought just a little bit harder, I might have an awesome British accent right now.  Maybe.

Jervis Bay doesn't have a lot of people living in it. The 2001 census counted 601 people. Most of those people live in the Royal Australian Naval Base.

Lord Wiki says 90% of the territory is Aboriginal land. There is a place called Wreck Bay Village. This is an Aboriginal Community and has about 215 people living there.

I found the beach with the famous white sand. Interesting thing is....It's called Greenpatch. Was someone trying to be funny?

I guess animals can be a bit aggressive in that area. They're a bit used to getting human food,
but now they have laws against feeding them.

Now I'm looking at the Jervis Bay Website.

Here it says:

Beaches as white as...... Birds as colourful as...... Water as clear as..... Air is pure as..... Stars as bright as......

I think someone was a bit lazy with their similes!

Here's the scuba diving place in Jervis Bay....or one of them. They say there are Gray Nurse Sharks. That's what I dived with in Manly.

The sad/funny thing is I love the experience of mingling with sharks. Tim does not.

Tim likes the experience of scuba diving. I hate it.

I wish there was a way we could combine ourselves so we could happily go scuba diving with sharks.

Now I'm thinking I might definitely want to go to Jervis Bay--scuba diving or not. It has the only Botanical Gardens in Australia owned by Aborigines. We love Botanical Gardens, and I'm interested in Indigenous Australia. I bet the Botanical Garden will be a perfect fit for us.

According to the garden's website, at one time a man named Octavius Charles Beale used the area as part of his tree farm. He was a piano manufacturer and used the timber for the piano frames. Mr. Beale was an interesting man. In the early 1900's, he was part of the New South Wales Royal Commission on low birth rates and infant mortality. He had some beliefs about secret drugs. I don't quite get it. There's something call an abortifacient. It's a drug that induces abortions. I guess he was against these. I'm not sure if he was against abortion-by-choice or trying to fight against drugs that might cause accidental abortions. Maybe both?

I'm learning all kinds of new vocabulary from this Beale stuff.

He had racialist and pro-natal views.

I'm trying to figure out what racialist means. It seems it is a belief in the difference between the races, but not necessarily saying that one race is better than the other. But often times it does. I think?

Pro-natalism is pretty much the idea that women should have more babies. Interestingly, Lord Wiki says the United States has anti-natalist policies and that's why we have such awful parental leave policies.

I think Australia is more pro-natalist than the United States and it explains why they have a Baby Bonus and all that. I guess there's controversy over whether Australia needs to be pro-natalist or not. Are there enough people in Australia? Does there need to be more? Does immigration make up for low-birth rates?

I should probably get back on track.

I do believe the government should be good towards families, regardless of whether the country needs to be pro-natalist or anti-natalist.

Okay, okay. I'm really going to get back on track now!

I was just reminded that the dolphin cruise is in Jervis Bay. So.....if we change our mind and decide we want to do a dolphin cruise, we can add it to the day's itinerary.

The largest town in Jervis Bay is Huskisson. The town is named after a guy who was killed in a train accident. I don't think though that it's the train accident that made him important enough for a town to be named for him. Or maybe it is.

I'm thinking maybe we'll eat lunch in this Huskisson place. Or maybe we'll pick up lunch and do a picnic.

I'm reading about the land transfer right now. I'm TRYING to understand this. What I'm getting (and I could be wrong) is that the land was given back to the Aborigines in 1995. Then the Aborigines leased the land back to the National Parks people. The lease is for ninety-nine years. Apparently, this is what's happening with Uluru as well.

Now I'm confused. Again. This SMH article says the whitest sand is at Hyam's beach. So?  what? Did I read something wrong with Greenpatch? Maybe Greenpatch is the suburb, and Hyam is the beach. Maybe they're both beaches, and they fight over who has the whitest sand?

Is white sand really that special? I mean it's nice and all. But is it really worth fighting over?

I think we're also going to go to this Cave Beach place. SMH says it has kangaroos and cockatoos. I love parrots. I really do. If I lived in Australia, I don't think I could ever take wild parrots for granted. To me, it's almost as exciting as having wild monkeys hanging about. Also, according to the article, Cave Beach has nice bathrooms. I'll all for that. Although, the article was written in 2005. Things might have gone downhill since them.

 I'm such a pessimist.

If it rains or it's horribly hot, we can go to the Lady Denman Museum. I think I'm more attracted to the outdoor activities though. We'll see.