Hungry Beach is situated beside

Cowan Creek Cowan Creek is located in New South Wales, Australia. It is a tidal subcatchment of the Hawkesbury River. Almost all of the catchment lies within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. Tributaries include Coal and Candle Creek Coal and Candle Creek i ...

and the

Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. ...

Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is a national park on the northern side of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. The park is north of the Sydney central business district and generally comprises the land east of the M1 Pacific Motorway, sout ...

in the northern part of

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. The north facing beach is about one kilometre from the ruins of the Flint & Steel Guesthouse. The beach is protected by steep cliffs. Above the beach are caves and

middens A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

, and a small densely vegetated gully with a fresh water stream. Access to the beach is by private boat; there is no formal bushwalking track but the beach can be reached by foot from Flint and Steel Bay. Hungry Beach was known as a fishing area, particularly for shark, turtle and

mulloway ''Argyrosomus japonicus'' is a silvery to bronze-green colored fish, a member of the family Sciaenidae, which may grow up to in length. It is known as Japanese meagre (FAO), mulloway or jewfish on the east coast of Australia, butterfish in South ...

. In 1936, ''

The Sydney Mail ''The Sydney Mail'' was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. It was the weekly edition of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' newspaper and ran from 1860 to 1938. History ''The Sydney Mail'' was first published on 17 July 1860 by Joh ...

'' reported that an indigenous man was shot dead by shark fishermen at Hungry Beach. The newspaper says he was the last surviving member of the Barrenjoey people. In 1899, the wreckage of the steam launch "Hatte", lying on Hungry Beach was sold for £25. The beach allegedly gets its name from a fisherman who became hungry, waiting for three days for a large shark to leave the area. Previously, the shark attacked his rowboat while fishing.

Royal Australian Navy in World War Two

Offshore and nearby, are concrete and brick relics of ''Indicator Loop & Controlled Mining Station number 285'', constructed by the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

during world war two. Mines were laid in this area. An

indicator loop An anti-submarine indicator loop was a submerged cable laid on the sea bed and used to detect the passage of enemy submarines. History In the first years of World War I submarines were fearful, one-sided weapons because they were invisible. In J ...

was an electrically charged cable, used to indicate shipping movements. In this case, the cable was situated from Hungry Beach to Juno Point at

Patonga Patonga is a small beach side fishing and holiday village which is part of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the edge of Brisk Bay and near the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. It is part of the local government ...

, two kilometres distant on the opposite side of the Hawkesbury River. The cable was used in the detection of Japanese submarines and to protect the

railway bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whic ...

. An infra red photo electric beam shone 2.6 kilometres from Hungry Point to the Central Coast, in order to detect enemy shipping. A

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...

auction sale was held in August 1945 for building related articles at Hungry Beach. Items included a 61 foot long mess hut, a 42 foot long sleeping hut, hot water boiler, 1,000 gallon tank, 300 gallon tank and stand, fuel range with double oven, doors, windows and linings. As well as fittings from the brick power hut, a latrine, moorings and a 25 by 7 foot boat. Brick building above Hungry Beach

References

{{Beaches of New South Wales Beaches of New South Wales Sydney localities History of Indigenous Australians Military history of Sydney during World War II