Shoalhaven, NSW, Australia - Coast and hills.

Listen to this audio Pats Postcard from Shoalhaven click here

If you listen to the audio postcard you'll hear the mournful voice of the Currawong, a crow like bird described in the Australian Field Guide to Birds as oo-ooo-oooo like the sound of a disapproving schoolgirl – hmm not sure what to make of that description!

Hi I'm Pat and I'm in the Shoalhaven District of NSW a couple of hours south of Sydney promoted as an area of unspoilt natural beauty and I would have to agree with them. It's a very green area with a lot of dairy farms but dominated by the backdrop of the Southern Highlands and the bush covered Moreton National Park and fronted by the magnificent Jervis Bay. At the northern end of the Bay stands Point Perpendicular with it's spectacular cliffs - at the southern end is Booderee National Park and in between is a wonderful stretch of coastline with sheltered bays and coves, majestic cliffs and headlands, crystal clear water and native bush right down to the sand. The beaches are of the whitest fine sand and squeaky.

The walking tracks in Booderee National Park are just lovely with a wide range of habitats – scribbly and black butt gums, coastal heathland with some glorious banksia, there are islands home to 5000 little penguins and wetlands where frogs thrive. 

It's a naturalists delight with Murray’s Beach being one of the nicest beaches that we've visited in Australia! It's hard to imagine now but back in 1969 the Australian Government gave approval for Australia's first nuclear power station to be built at Murray's Beach. A combination of technical worries, cost escalation and public pressure meant that the station never got built but what a loss for wildlife and people that would have been. It would be nice to think we are more enlightened now but I fear not as the Great Barrier Reef suffers it's worst case of bleaching whilst there's little support to do anything about it from the Australian Government.

If you want a walk that's a little more strenuous then try the track up Pigeon House Mountain, in the Moreton National Park. The final ascent is up a series of stairs and ladders, but the effort is worth it, the views inland over the bush covered dissected plateau are magnificent.

One of the things that has hit us every day here is the bird life, it's amazing – I've copied a montage of bird calls into the audio postcard so have a listen.

I'm not sure what they all are but I think there are butcher birds, magpies, lorrikeets, bell birds, and whip birds there amongst others.

At the northern end of Jervis Bay is a headland called Abraham's Bosom and it's here that Wendy and I had a most exciting trip when we visited Gosangs Tunnel where you clamber through a small tunnel that ends in a cave halfway up a cliff-face.   

And such fun it was perched on a small ledge halfway up the cliff-face looking down onto the crashing sea.  Gosangs Tunnel.