Bobs Farm is a sparsely populated rural suburb of the Port Stephens

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

in the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River (New Sout ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It is on the main road between

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

and Nelson Bay and is home to a number of small,

boutique A () is a retail shop that deals in high end fashionable clothing or accessories. The word is French for "shop", which derives ultimately from the Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in anc ...

style

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

s and

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

and a thriving

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. Nelu ...

industry. Bobs Farm Public School on Marsh Road is a co-educational government primary school which was established in 1918.

History

The Worimi people are the

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

of the Port Stephens area. The area was named after a guy named Bob.

Timorese internment

Contrary to the law, civilians who had been evacuated from the colony of

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor () was a Portuguese colony on the territory of present-day East Timor from 1702 until 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the regio ...

to escape the Japanese invaders were interned in the former military camp at Bobs Farm during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. They had supported the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

in the

Battle of Timor The Battle of Timor occurred in Portuguese Timor and West Timor, Dutch Timor during the Second World War. Empire of Japan, Japanese forces invaded the island on 19 February 1942 and were resisted by a small, under-equipped force of Allies of Worl ...

. Even official Australian sources describe the living conditions in the camp as harsh.

Geography

Bobs Farm is the first suburb of the Tomaree Peninsula when travelling towards Nelson Bay. It is bounded on the north almost entirely by Tilligerry Creek. A small part at the north-eastern end of the northern border meets Port Stephens. The southern border is occupied entirely by

Stockton Beach Stockton Beach is located north of the Hunter River (New South Wales), Hunter River in New South Wales, Australia. It is long and stretches from Stockton, New South Wales, Stockton, to Anna Bay. Over many years Stockton Beach has been the site ...

Demographics

Most of the suburb's population lies along the two main roads in the area, Marsh Road and Nelson Bay Road. Tin City, a collection of squatters shacks, is built on Stockton Beach near the border between Bobs Farm and Salt Ash.

Aquaculture industry

''Bobs Farm'' is the centre of a thriving, environmentally friendly,

industry that exports technology. In 2007 pioneering aquaculture technology, based around a recirculating system that is the only one in the world to provide consistent reproduction, was sold for the creation of six farms in the United States. , discussions were in progress with companies in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. An education and tourism centre was constructed at the site of Tailor Made Fish Farms in 2007. In addition to it being environmentally friendly and providing consistent results, the technology developed at ''Bobs Farm'' is expected to reduce capitalisation costs.

Notes

References

External links

Tailor Made Fish Farms
{{Suburbs of Port Stephens Beaches of New South Wales Aquaculture Suburbs of Port Stephens Council