22/08/2026
Today’s place Beermuna/ Boydtown
Today we visited Beermuna/ Boydtown on Twofold Bay, a beautiful place carrying many layers of history.
The beach here is known as Beermuna, on the Country of the Thaua people of the Yuin Nation, who have cared for and been connected to this coastline for thousands of years.
Being here during Australian South Sea Islander recognition month felt especially significant for our family.
Boydtown was established by Benjamin Boyd in the 1840s, and in 1847 he brought South Sea Islander men from the Pacific Islands to New South Wales as labourers. Their story forms part of a difficult and painful history of exploitation and coercive labour that preceded the later practice known as blackbirding.
Standing here today, we wondered about the people who came through this place and the connections that may exist between their stories and ours.
As we looked out over the water, we talked about how history can hold so much at once beauty, pain, injustice, survival and connection.
And one thought stayed with me:
Without that history, we wouldn’t be together today.
Our family story is connected to the much bigger story of the South Sea Islander people who came to Australia, survived, built families and communities, and whose descendants continue to carry their stories and culture forward.
So today’s place was about more than discovering somewhere beautiful.
It was about Country, ancestry, history, belonging and remembering those who came before us.
Today’s place — Boydtown, Beermuna. 🤎🌊Selwyn Tambo
