The Clyde Coast - The Name
The name used for the region by Morningside was not reached lightly - it was selected after a very careful and thorough discussion with a number of people and groups involved in tourism promotion. Remember, the initial objective of the establishment of the identity of the region is for tourism promotion purposes. Some of the factors that influenced the choice:
The region is largely contained in and contains most of the catchment of the Clyde River. Indeed it is recommended that the western boundary of the region is the boundary of the Clyde catchment - which basically means the topmost ridge of the Eastern escarpment
In promoting our region, we need to emphasise its natural "stars" which feature the Clyde River, Pigeon House, our National Parks, our coastal lakes, the forests, our magnificent beaches. The Clyde "embraces" the whole region while the word "coast" immediately signifies our beaches, the major drawcard of the whole South Coast. We could not find an alternative that gives some sort of recognition to all parts of the region.
Why not the Bhundoo Coast? This was certainly considered (our Clyde River web page has always been subtitled "The Bhundoo") and we would consider this to be the ultimate objective for official naming of both the river and the region. We would recommend as a priority the documenting of the Koori cultural history of the region and to promote this as part of our unique identity. In the shorter term however, we need to have a name that has a reference in today's official naming standards so as to give us a chance to obtain immediate identification. We suggest that for the time being we refer to the region as The Clyde Coast, with a subheading of "Bhundoo Dreaming" to cater for our longer term aims.
Is the Clyde River too closely associated with Batemans Bay? While locals know that Batemans Bay is situated on the Clyde, we do not think that this association is widely know outside the local region. In any case, we do not wish to disassociate ourselves from Batemans Bay or Ulladulla which are very important influences on us. Indeed, any such association of our name with Batemans Bay is probably advantageous as Batemans Bay is one of the boom coastal towns and all we need to do is to get people to understand the our region, the Clyde Coast is immediately north of Batemans Bay. The same argument applies to Pigeon House which is mainly associated with Milton/Ulladulla. We need to tell people that these magnificent natural features are ours and we need some say in their future.
One further point that should be made is that Morningside has been using the name Clyde Coast in its Internet promotions for about 5 years now - indeed many of our local clients have reference to it in their websites. There is a growing knowledge of the name in this rapidly growing medium. The name is well entrenched in the Internet's search engines and is extensively and thoroughly integrated into Morningside's TravelSouth: Visitors Guide to South Coast NSW which is the most widely-read tourism publication on the coast. To change the name at this stage would require a great deal of work and would nullify all the gains that had been made in its identification over the past five years. This exposure and promotional factor has been provided to the region and its community at no charge and for a group and a region with few resources available for collective promotion, this service should not be discarded lightly.
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