Bates General Store and the Two Story B&B at the entrance to Central Tilba

 

Central Tilba (including Tilba Tilba and Mt Dromedary)
Tiny timber township which has become a major tourist attraction as the old shops have been replaced by restaurants, coffee lounges and gift shops.
Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba, 365 km south of Sydney via the Princes Highway, are incorporated within the Dromedary Conservation Area, which stretches south from Narooma to Bermagui.

Captain Cook named Cape Dromedary and Mt Dromedary, the highest point on the south coast, in April 1770. At the time he noted in his journal:

At 6 o'clock we were a breast of a pretty high mountain laying near the shore which on account of its figure I named Mt Dromedary .. The shore under the foot of this Mountain forms a point which I have named Cape of Dromedary.

Captain Thomas Raine was probably the first European to establish a run in the vicinity of the mountain in the 1820s. Stockman John Jauncey became one of the first settlers in the area when he established his run east of where Cobargo now sits at Narira in the late 1830s (the local Aborigines called the mountain 'Cubago'). Peter Imlay bought land around Cobargo around this time and he was followed by selectors from Moruya.

A gold find was reported at Mt Dromedary in 1853 and, after reef gold was uncovered in 1860, prospectors rushed to the district. The Dromedary Gold Mining Company continued operations until the beginning of this century. Some of the prospectors settled at Tilba Tilba where a post office was opened in 1873 with Richard Bate as postmaster. The Bate family became prominent in the area. Henry Bate moved to the town after taking up land on the slopes of Mt Dromedary in 1864 where he built Mountain View homestead. Until a church was erected in 1881 Henry Bate provided a room for church services. The family increased its holdings throughout the 1880s, by which time the town possessed two stores and a hotel.

 

The A.B.C. Cheese Factory

 

In 1891 Samuel Bate became one of the founders of the A.B.C. Cheese Factory in what was to become Central Tilba. The factory closed in the 1960s with a downturn in the dairy industry but reopened as a result of a tourism boost. It now supplements specialist cheese production with arts and crafts sales (open 9-5 daily). Bate's General Store was opened there in 1894 (it includes the post office) and, the following year, the township sprung up on land sold by Samuel Bate.

Established on a crossroads it was intended as a site for the location and provision of workers at the Dromedary Gold Mines. Naturally, the two-storey Mt Dromedary Hotel (initially known as the Palace Hotel) was one of the first buildings to be erected. The water tower nearby and the upstairs verandah of the hotel are good spots from which to view the tightly clustered village with its one street, two dozen buildings and stunning mountain setting. The town currently sports a shop which specialises in Alpaca garments.

 

Tilba Bakery, a typical timber building in the main street

 

Because the town was so rapidly established (all but one of the structures being erected in the 1890s) all of the buildings are homogeneous, all timber, except the cheese factory. Because the town failed to develop after goldmining died in the area it has remained untouched. The one building constructed at a later date was the Methodist Church, also built on land provided by Samuel Bate, in 1907. The entire village is classified by the National Trust as the Central Tilba Conservation Area.

Samuel Bate became a prominent local citizen. He opened a weatherboard school at Tilba Tilba in 1900, helped establish the Moruya-Tilba Times newspaper and was one of the first councillors of the Eurobodalla Shire.

The post office cum general store, the first building on your left as you enter Central Tilba, can furnish more precise dates for the Tilba Festival, held each April. Anyone contemplating a drive off the main roads would be ill-advised to travel without a topographical or forestry map, also available from the major tourist offices. The Batemans Bay Forestry Project Map is, at $6, a worthwhile purchase.

Things to see:  

Central Tilba
The town itself is the main attraction in the area. It is only a single street but there is a beauty about the houses and shops. The main street can be walked in about ten minutes but the siren call of gift shops and coffee lounges is there so the visitor can easily spend a couple of hours.

 

Foxglove Spire Gardens
Foxglove Spire Gardens, open seven days a week, is a 100-year-old cottage surrounded by three-and-a-half acres of fragrant gardens and woodlands. It is located on Corkhill Drive in Tilba Tilba.

 

The Tilbas Scenic Route
Both Tilbas are located on a road which forms a loop off the Princes Highway just north of the Bermagui turnoff. Those keen on a scenic drive (about 15 km) can take the unsealed road north out of Central Tilba, which then heads east and south back to the highway just south of Corunna Lake. It is a signposted tourist drive.

 

 

Strange and sacred granite outcrops at the top of Gulaga (Mt Dromedary)

 

Bushwalking in the area
There are walking tracks from both Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba (the track starts beside Pams General store in the centre of Tilba Tilba) to the top of Mt Dromedary (Gulaga) and back, though it takes 4-5 hours and you need to be fit. There is a car park at the base of the Dromedary trail which leads to the summit. The mountain is surrounded by a 1250-ha flora reserve and offers rainforest, waterfalls, old mine workings and excellent views.

Near the top of the mountain is an information board which explains 'Mt Dromedary is known as Gulaga to the Aboriginal people. The Wombara or Black Duck totem of the Yuin tribe enjoy a special relationship with Gulaga as their place of origin, as a traditional place of water and food, as the home of their ancestors, as a teaching and initiation site for both men and women. Due to its elevation and fertile soils the mountain also supports a wide range of plants and animals. Many of these species, especially in the rainforest, are at the southern limit of their distribution.'

 

 

Eric Naylor, a Yuin Elder, at the top of Gulaga (Mt Dromedary)

 

Umbarra Cultural Tours
A most interesting way to see Mt Dromedary, the mountain (known by the Yuin people as Gulaga), Mystery Bay, Camel Rock, Mumbulla Mountain and Fairhaven Point is to take a guided four-hour, four-wheel drive tour with the Yuin people of Wallaga Lake at the Umbarra Cultural Centre. There are also cruises of the lake, its birdlife and midden sites with a full commentary on their cultural significance. The centre will furnish information unavailable in written and most other sources about Aboriginal culture in the area. There are Dreamtime stories, a chance to indulge in ochre painting, bark-hut building, spear and boomerang throwing, bush medicine and bush-tucker. The centre can be found on the Bermagui Road a few kilometres south of the highway, tel: (02) 4473 7232 (see entry on Bermagui for more information about Wallaga Lake National Park).

 

 

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Central Tilba