Wattamolla is a cove and lagoon on the New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 coast south of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, within the Royal National Park

Royal National Park

Royal National Park is a national park in New South Wales, Australia, 29 km south of Sydney CBD.Founded by Sir John Robertson, Acting Premier of New South Wales, and formally proclaimed on 26 April 1879, it is the world's second oldest purposed national park, the first usage of the term...

.

Wattamolla is the local Aboriginal

Indigenous Australians

Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....

 name, meaning "place near running water". That name was recorded as Watta-Mowlee by Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders RN was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been...

, but is today spelt Wattamolla. Flinders, George Bass

George Bass

George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...

 and a boy, William Martin, stopped there in their boat the Tom Thumb II on the evening of 29 March 1796. They had been pushed northwards in the boat along the high cliffs there by a southerly gale and wanted to find a cove of some sort for shelter. At about 10pm they came upon breaking waves and Flinders thought the dark outline of cliffs ended and so turned the boat towards shore. They had found Wattamolla and in just moments were in the calm sheltered water of the lagoon. Such was their relief that they were going to call it Providential Cove until learning later of its Aboriginal name.

External links

• Wattamolla pictues at Picture Australia