Merimbula - Old School Museum

The Yuin people of the far south traditionally moved between the coast and the mountains according to the seasons, feasting on the bogong moths in summer and seafood during winter and trading with the tribes of the Maneroo. This life was interrupted by white settlement in the early 1830s.

A family of brothers, Peter, George and Alexander Imlay, arrived from Scotland and settled in the Twofold Bay district between 1832 and 1835, establishing a whaling station and cattle runs. They started grazing cattle around Pambula, and by 1834 had established vast pastoral runs as far north as Broulee and west to the mountain escarpment, shipping cattle, sheep and salted beef from Twofold Bay to Tasmania.

When livestock prices crashed in the 1840s, the Imlays encountered financial difficulties and much of their land was taken over by the Walker brothers who in turn sold around 400.000 acres in 1852 to the Twofold Bay Pastoral Association, formed by the Manning family, Thomas Mort, John Croft and Edwin and Frederick Tooth.

In 1855 the company set up a wharf on the lake at Merimbula. Droghers with shallow keels were used to transport wool from the port to steamers that were anchored in deeper water outside the bar. At this stage Merimbula consisted of a few small holdings belonging to the Twofold Bay Pastoral Association and a flour mill. However wheat did not grow well so close to the ocean and the mill was soon abandoned.

Matthew Munn arrived in Melbourne from Scotland in 1857 and gained employment in the Brown and Polson factory making cornflour. Hearing of the abandoned mill in Merimbula, Munn, realising that white maize was well suited to the area, decided to buy the mill and set up his own ‘Maizena’. He imported special grinding stones from Scotland and became very successful at milling fine cornflour. Eventually Munn bought all the small holdings and leased them back to the farmers who provided him with a steady supply of maize.

The publication, When the Mill came to Merimbula by Beatrice Gallo and Ray Barnett, describes the full story of Munn’s corn flour production and is on sale at the Old School Museum.

Munn now owned most of the settlement of Merimbula and provided employment for its inhabitants. He built a home for his son, Armstrong, naming it ‘Courunga’ and positioning it above the town. The house, along with the school built by the Munns, are the only buildings dating from the 1870s that still exist in Merimbula today. Armstrong Munn took over the business following his father’s death in 1873 but the factory began to decline when Armstrong stopped Sunday overtime, allowing competitors to enter their market. Also Munn faced litigation from America over the name ‘Maizena’, which cost him dearly, and he lost much of the family fortune through unwise investments in the Pambula goldfields. 

In 1860 the first land lots were sold for £1 per acre and gradually the population increased

The first school also served as a Protestant church but as the number of children increased the Munn’s built a more permanent structure from locally quarried stone in 1873. Today this is the Old School Museum which houses a collection of objects, photographs and archives significant to the history of the area.

Pig farming complemented the growing of maize, the pigs living off the stubble and dairy by-products. In 1922 the cornflour mill was converted to a bacon factory, the pigs brought into town by farmers and slaughtered behind the factory. Now owned by the Merimbula Co-operative Bacon Society, the factory produced high quality bacon, hams and smallgoods for many years, much of which was shipped to Sydney from the lakeside wharf.

When the volume of goods became too great for the jetties around the lake to handle, the Government built a deep water wharf just outside the lake in 1902. The Illawarra & South Coast Steam Navigation Company used the wharf to transport people and goods up and down the coast until 1952 when the service came to an end. 

Merimbula, with its beautiful beaches and surrounding forests, became a popular tourist destination in the 1960s and remains so today. Oyster farming, begun in earnest after World War I, is also a thriving industry.

The Merimbula Imlay Historical Society has an extensive library of historic photographs from the local area. Copies of these are available for a moderate charge, and may be ordered during museum opening hours; Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday 1.30pm - 4:00pm or by phoning the curator on 02) 6495 9231.

Entry is $3.00 per adult and children may enter free of charge.

The Old School Museum is located directly opposite the RSL, Main St Merimbula.

Acknowledgement to Olwen Morris, Merimbula-Imlay Historical Society for the above information