As you walk along the track after leaving Forty Baskets, you will notice a track branching off to the right heading up the hill. This is an alternate track that eventually ltakes you back in a westerly direction to Beatty St. Some of the photos here were taken along that track which has it's own delights. If you are lucky you may see delicate native orchids along the track.

You could have turned off earlier when at Forty Baskets and following the road that runs down at the back of the beach. This short road leads to Beatty St where you would turn left and follow it to the end where the upper track begins taking you east to Reef Beach.

A gnarly angophora on the upper Reef Beach track

There are two freshwater springs at either end of Reef Beach and clearly it was a favouite spot for the original inhabitants of the area as there is a large midden covering most of the length of the beach. The rock overhangs which face away from the prevailing weather would have provided excellent shelter during storms.

A plaque provides the following information...

"You are standing on the edge of a midden, the remains of many meals of shellfish, left by the indigenous people who lived here before white settlement. Some fragments are the remains of species no longer found in these waters. Men and women dived for shellfish or collected them at low tide. Fish were caught from the shore or from canoes, using a spear or a shell hook and line."

From 1834 to 1912 eight hectares around Reef Beach were privately owned though thankfully it was never seriously developed. From the mid 1800's it became popular with campers and it wasn't long before some ramshackle structures began to appear along with gardens. An engraving behind the northern end of the beach is a reminder of the local Federal Football team possibly carved around 1905 when the Federals became the Manly Rugby Club.

Some camps became permanent homes and a two hole golf course was created. However bushfires destroyed most of the camps in 1936 and 1940. In the 1950's Manly Council attempted to "clean up" the camps. The last resident was a hermit who built a two room camp from bits and pieces he found washed ashore, plastic, wood and even the bonnet of a VW beetle.

In 1975 Reef Beach became a nude bathing beach when the state government relaxed the regulations on a number of Sydney beaches. This soon started a battle with locals that raged for nearly 20 years. The locals finally won and nude bathing ended in the mid 1990's. The area is now in the control of the National Parks and Wildlife service.

more on....

Angophoras
Native Orchids