Mysterious Bermagui Disappearance

7/28/2019 Mysterious Bermagui Disappearance

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/mysterious-bermagui-disappearance 1/4

The Land (Sydney, NSW : 1911 - 1954), Friday 14 August 1953, page 32

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article116885177

SSjOxd"ivtiVrm

i

j^jOWADAYS, the prettylittle South Coast (N.S.W.) seaside resort

of Bermagui is fao-nous for its biggame fishing — famous

American novelisMishemian Zarie Grey bringing it into popularity

when he made Bermagui his headquarters during his visit to this

There is still much to

remind the visitor of Zane

Grey, a number of points

of interest beipg named

after him.

A shelter, shed in the re

serve bears the name

"Zane Grey Camp." It was

built with material from

the Zane Grey camp.

Older residents of the

district, however, still

associate the place with

an incident that has be

come known as The Ber

snagiii Mystery, a real

mystery of the sea and

the goldflelds.

Four men disappeared in

mysterious circumstances,

and were never heard of

again.

Lure of Gold

^BOUT 70 years ago

there were several

thousand miners and

iheir families on the

Montreal Goldfields, a

short distance from

Bermagui.

Rich gold had ween dis

covered at a rather lonely

spot between Bermaguiand Tilba Tilba, and

miners from all .parts of

miners from all .parts of

the world flocked to themew field.

Among the people whose

business took them to

these golciflelds was a geo

logical surveyor named

Lamont Young and hisfield assistant, a German

named Schneider.

During their vleisure

these two men did much

fishing, snapper, gro

per and tuna being plentiful off the coast.

One day they arrangedwith an Ulladulla fisher

man, named Tom Towers,

and another man, to meet

them as a point about nine

miles from the goldfields,

and take them out in their

fishing boat for a goodday's fishing.

This particular point has

since been named MysteryPoint, because of the mys

tery surrounding the dis

appearance of the four

men.

It is known that the two

.fishermen were waiting at

the appointed place'

in

their boat and tliat theywere joined by Young and

Schneider. The four set

out to fish some distance

off the point.

Just what



Just what happenedafterwards . remains a

mystery. The four men

were, never seen alive

again, nor were their

bodies ever found.

The following morningthe boat was found jam

med againsi a big- rock,close to a little sandybeach.

.There was a small hole

in the side of the boat and•all the sails were missing.

In the bottom of the boat

was found a book on geo

logy, obviously the pro

perty of Lamont Young,while his spectacles were

found between the leaves

of .the book, as though he

had been reading, removed

the spectacles and usedthem as a bookmark.

No clothing or fishing

tackle was to be seen in or

near the boat, but a short

distance away tnere was a

small fire still smouldering.Police searched the

coast for miles, the sea

"hear the little beach was

dragged, but nothing con

nected with the men was

found.

Black trackers were

taken to the district and a

thorough search was made

of the bush in the vicinity,

but' not a single clue was

found.

Many Theories

MANY_

theories were

put forward and a

number of possible leads

were followed up with

out result.

So far as was known,

none of the men had any

enemies..

It was known that both

Young and Schneider had

a number of small nuggets

of gold and some money,

but it seems unlikely that

they would take either the

nuggets or the gold with

them on a fishing trip.

them on a fishing

However, neither nug

gets nor the money could,

be found at their camp

back on the goldfields.

One theory put forward

was that the men had

been murdered by aboi'i

gines, but this was ruled

out because there were

only a few aborigines in

the area and they were

very friendly.

There were no signs of

any struggle either m the

boat or about the spotwhere the boat had been

grounded.If the men had pulled



ONE of. the lew relics cf American novelist-fisherman Zane Grey's visit to Bermagui. It

is a shelter shed in the reserve, built with materials irom the Zane Grey camp, and called

the "Zane Grey Camp."

ashore possibly to light a

fire and cook some of the

fish, and were suddenly at

tacked, there would have

been some signs of a

struggle about the fire, but

there were no signs what

ever of any such struggle.

Beautiful Lake

jVTEAR Mystery Point

is the beautiful Wal

Iaga Lake, and itwas re

ported. that on the fatal

day a man was seen to

row a small boat across

Wallaga Lake, take fromit

a large sack and disap

pearinto the

densescrub.

This man was never

found, and while he may

have known something

about the disappearance of

the men, little notice was

taken by the police of this

report.

Perhaps he was just an

other fisherman mindinghis own business.

After months of inquiry

gave up hope of

police gave up hope of

solving the mystery of the

disappearance of the four

men, but interest was re

vived when L a m o n t

Young's theodolite, and

some other surveying in

struments, identified as be

longingto

him,were found

in a secondhand dealer's

shop in Melbourne.

The man who sold them

to the dealer could not be

found, but even the find

ing of these instruments

may have had little to do

with the actual disappear

ance of the four men.

There were many unde

sirable men among the

miners there, just as there

are on any goldfield, and

some of them would not

hesitate to steal anything

from the camp of the

missing men.

Some time after the dis

appearance of the men a

report was circulated that

Schneider, Lamont

Young's assistant, was seen

alive in several places, but

this was never proved.

It seems more likely that



seems more

he suffered the same fate

as the other three.

It now seems most un

likely that the true fate

of the four men will ever

be kjiown.

Rich Goldfield

JHESEMontreal

goldfields were

among the richest 011 the

South Coast of N.S.W.,

although gold was also

discovered earlier at

Moruya, Araluen, Brou

lee, Mo go, Nelligen,

Nerrigundah, and a num

ber of otherplaces.

With the gold came the

bushrangers and other, un

desirable characters.

Among the bushrangers

who terrorised the resi

dents perhaps the best

known were the Clarkes.

At Nerrigundah there

stands a memorial to the

memory, of Constable Miles

O'Grady, who was killed

by a member of this gang

on April 7, 1866.

It is one of the few re

minders that this part of

the South Coast of N.S.W.

was once a busy gold min

ing centre,, when the gold

from the earth was con

sidered of far more im

portance than the golden

butter and cheese that the

district now produces in

quantities.

The bush has covered

most of the stfars left by

the miners, and cattlenow graze where go Id

miners roamed.

An aboriginal mission

station has been establish

ed on Wallaga Lake, and

Bermagui itself has be

come world famous for its

big game fishing.

But some of the old

hands still insist on their

theories about the Ber

magui Mystery and the

disappearance of the geo

logical surveyor, Lamont

Young, his German assist

ant Schneider and the two

professional fishermen.

Their stories. are far

more interesting than

those told by modern fish

ermen about the big mar

lin that got away.

Mysterious Bermagui Disappearance

Documents

Transcript of Mysterious Bermagui Disappearance