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The Merimbula Oyster Festival Monument sits at the base of a gum tree adjacent to the Visitor Information Centre (formerly known as the Tourist Information Centre) in Beach Street, Merimbula, a town on the far south coast of New South Wales, Australia (see Map 7.1). The monument, in the shape of an oyster shell, has a plaque attached to it that states it was donated to the community by the Merimbula Oyster Festival Committee of 1979, the organisers of Merimbula’s first Oyster Festival, and lists the names of eight people. The monument is not mentioned in any publications dealing with the history of the local area and, at the time of carrying out my research, was not mentioned in any monument-related publications. One local history publication does contain a brief paragraph on the 1979 festival.
Merimbula, built around Merimbula Lake and Merimbula Bay on the Sapphire Coast (see Map 7.3), has long been a tourist and holiday destination town and in recent decades many retirees have settled in the area. Oyster farming is a major local industry that has been carried out in Merimbula Lake since the early-twentieth century and the local oysters have won many awards. A person viewing the monument, which is on the edge of the lake, would observe the oyster beds in the lake and could make a connection between the monument and the local industry of oyster farming, but if they wished to learn the significance of the monument and the purpose and details of the festival mentioned on the plaque and any subsequent festivals, such information is not readily available.
This book seeks to address that gap in the recorded history of Merimbula by establishing the history and meaning of the monument and the history of the festivals that it commemorates. It is based on a research essay submitted in 2014 as part of the requirements for my Bachelor of Historical Inquiry and Practice degree at the University of New England, Armidale.
