Yowie Bay is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

southern Sydney Southern Sydney is the southern metropolitan area of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Southern Sydney includes the suburbs in the local government areas of Georges River Council and part of Bayside Council (collectively known ...

, in the state of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Yowie Bay is located 24 kilometres south of the

Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or c ...

, in the

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

of the

Sutherland Shire Sutherland Shire is a local government area in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland Shire comprises an area of and as at the had an estimated population of . Sutherland Shire is colloquially ...

. Yowie Bay takes its name from the small bay on the north shore of the

Port Hacking Port Hacking Estuary ( Aboriginal Tharawal language: ''Deeban''), an open youthful tide dominated, drowned valley estuary, is located in southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia approximately south of Sydney central business district. Port ...

estuary (also known locally as the Port Hacking River). It is bounded to the north by the suburb of Miranda and shares its postcode of 2228. Located to the east, across the Yowie Bay waterway, is Caringbah South. To the west is the suburb of

Gymea Bay The Gymea Bay is a bay on the upper estuarine Port Hacking River, fed by the Coonong Creek in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia Location and features The bay, the locality, suburb of and the adjacent suburb of Gymea, ...

, across the bay of the same name.

History

The name for the waterway ''Ewey Bay'' first appears in an 1827 map by surveyor Robert Dixon. As Dixon had labelled other localities around Port Hacking with Aboriginal names, it is assumed that ''Ewey'' was Dixon's recording of the Aboriginal name too. Land in the area was released as the Village of ''Weerona'' in 1889. The spelling ''Yowie'' first appears around the same time. In an 1890 newspaper letter to the editor, Richard Hill claimed the meaning of ''Yowie'' was "Cooee". Referring to Yowie Point, he claimed that there "the blacks, when travelling north, used to cooey to their friends on the north, and were brought over in the canoes..." The word "yowi" also appeared as "echo of a cooee" on a list of Aboriginal words collected in 1899 by the Anthropological Society of Australasia, in the Liverpool (police) district, which had earlier included the current Sutherland Shire area. There appears to be no relationship to the mythical Australian creature called a

Yowie Yowie is one of several names for an Australian folklore entity that is reputed to live in the Outback. The creature has its roots in Aboriginal oral history. In parts of Queensland, they are known as ''quinkin'' (or as a type of quinkin), an ...

. It is however unclear why both ''Ewey'' and ''Yowie'' were in use. According to one suggestion, ''Ewey'' might have been associated with ewes when sheep were run in the area in the 1860s. Some of the workers with various accents might have pronounced "ewe" as "yow" and thus introduced the pronunciation ''Yowie''. As reported by local newspapers, the Sutherland Shire Council attempted to establish ''Ewey Bay'' as the correct name. However, the suburb was officially assigned the name ''Yowie Bay'' in 1973 by the Geographical Names Board.Sutherland Shire place names
File:Yowie Bay 3.JPG, Yowie Bay homes and jetties File:Yowie Bay 6.JPG, Yowie Bay view towards Port Hacking

Commercial area

Yowie Bay is a mostly residential area with just a few scattered commercial developments. A marina is located at the end of Wonga Road with a liquor shop nearby. The Port Hacking Open Sailing Club sits on Yowie Bay. The Postbox Café is on the corner of Forest Road and Attunga Road, occupying the former site of a corner shop. The Yowie Bay Friendly Grocer (formerly Yowie Bay General Store) is located on Forest Road. There is one small school, Yowie Bay Public School. File: Yowie Bay 2.JPG, Yowie Bay marina File: Yowie Bay 4.JPG, Yowie Bay marina File: Yowie Bay 1.JPG, Yowie Bay general store

References

External links

{{Sydney Sutherland suburbs Suburbs of Sydney Bays of New South Wales Sutherland Shire