Patonga
Geography
Patonga is a small and quiet bayside community occupying a one kilometre long sandy spit projecting from the rocky and elevated headland of the Brisbane Water National Park to the north through to the spit at the mouth of the Patonga Creek which feeds into the Hawkesbury River at Broken Bay. Patonga has both a beach frontage onto Brisk Bay to the east and a sandy foreshore on the creek to the west.
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Patonga can be accessed by road along Patonga Drive from Umina to the north, by ferry from Palm Beach or by private watercraft.
The community extends to housing, accessible only by watercraft, which occupies Patonga Creek's foreshore on the opposite bank. Various bush tracks provide hiking access to Patonga and the surrounding reserves. Patonga also has a walking track of medium difficulty which leads to neighbouring Pearl Beach.
Patonga still operates as a fishing village but is also home to weekenders escaping from Sydney and holiday makers.
The Patonga Creek was once navigable by fairly large vessels, but now averages about half a metre in depth.
The nearby towns of Umina Beach and Ettalong Beach are significant neighbouring communities which provide many facilities and services not available at Patonga.
Origin of name
Patonga means "oyster" in the Darkinjung people's language. Early English language maps of the area spelt Patonga as "Betonga".
Local industry and facilities
Oyster farming is the main local industry along with eco-tourism and recreational tourism.
Visitors from the Central coast, day trippers from Palm Beach, wider Sydney, Newcastle, and other areas of the NSW provide customers to the Boathouse Hotel and Kiosk. The hotel has a tavern with a restaurant and some accommodation The town also has as a handful of art galleries.
Recreational facilities and infrastructure include a sports oval, a public boat ramp to the eastern end of the village, tennis courts, a public wharf and a two-hectare camping and caravan park located at the southern end of the village (accessed by Patonga and Bay Streets). The wharf is also used by commercially operated ferries providing services to Palm Beach and Newport on the Northern Beaches.
Visitors to Patonga can take advantage of the opportunity for canoeing, boating, fishing and hiking.
Patonga and the film industry
Patonga provided the setting for the fishing village of Graves Point in the 1996 television movie loosely based on Peter Benchley's novel, 'The Beast', a sci-fi horror-drama in which a rare giant squid threatens a small seaport community. The featured sea-side cottage near the wharf was constructed as a film set and demolished on completion. Patonga has also featured in many other movies and TV shows such as Oyster Farmer, Micro Nation, Home and Away and many other big known titles.
References
- ^ "2016 Census QuickStats – Patonga".
- ^ NSW Department of Communities Sport & Recreation Broken Bay Sport and Recreation Centre Official website
- ^ Gosford City Council, The first inhabitants of Brisbane Water Archived 5 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 4 May 2011
- ^ Gosford City Council, History of Woy Woy, March 2006 Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 4 May 2011
- ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115109/ IMDb 'The Beast'. Retrieved 16 January 2011
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