Bermagui is a sleepy fishing and retirement village on the estuary of the Bermagui River. The surrounding area produces timber and dairy produce.

Where is it?: South Coast. Bermagui is 378 km south of Sydney via the Princes Highway.

Lookouts: Michael Lerner Lookout is 3 km south of Bermagui. It has excellent views over the coast.

Bermagui, the most northerly town on what is called the Sapphire Coast, is surrounded by secluded surf beaches, estuaries, wetlands and coastal lagoons, with Mount Dromedary in Guluga National Park its hinterland backdrop.

Things To See and Do


Mimosa Rocks National Park stretches south of Bermagui for 17 km along another rewarding strip of coastal beaches, caves, cliffs, rocky coves, massive offshore rock stacks, headlands, lagoons, coastal lakes and a heavily wooded hinterland, including patches of rainforest. Snorkelling, surfing, rsock and beach fishing, swimming and bushwalking, coastal birdwatching and foreshore fossicking can are popular pass times.

Horseshoe Bay and Blue Pool are popular swimming places. The Bermagui headlands are also a popular rock-fishing location.

About Bermagui

As early as the 1830s, small vessels were calling at Bermagui to service dairy farmers who had settled in the district. The town was laid out in 1867 and quickly developed as a fishing port. Gold was found near the Bermagui River in the 1890s but no such occurred as finds were small. Crime novelist Arthur Upfield lived at Bermagui in the 1950s. His novel, The Mystery of Swordfish Reef (1960), set in Bermagui, was inspired by the fate of geologist Lamont Young who was sent from Sydney to inspect the new goldfields at Bermagui in 1880.

The town's name is of Aboriginal origin in the language of the Dyirringany peoples, it is believed to be derived from 'permageua'. The word is thought to be the Aboriginal name for a canoe with paddles. On an early plan it appears as Permageua.

The 2001 film, The Man Who Sued God, starring Billy Connolly as a lawyer who becomes a fisherman, was mostly filmed in Bermagui.

Surrrounding area


Wallaga Lake National Park (10 km north) protects a beautiful open forest on the eastern shore of Wallaga Lake. The Park is generally hilly with steep gullies and so is best explored by boat, which can be hired locally. The fauna in the area is plentiful, and includes potoroos, koalas, bandicioots and swamp wallabies. There are few beaches but a number of shallow bays and sheltered inlets. Camel Rock, on the shoreline, is an unusual rock formation.