And lots of Oyster leases.
We have been coming here for Christmas since my Aunt and Uncle moved here after buying a Motel.
Originally it made its money from oysters, prawns and general ocean seafood - a sleepy little town with about the best fish and chip shops you could imagine. Fishing co-ops and a small bunch of local shops. It was a tourist town basically with cement board (fibro to us) Motels with wooden floorboards and three windows.
In the main hotel street there used to be a bunch of holiday flats called Eros 1, Eros 2 and Eros 3 near the cinema where I once saw a McHales Navy double thinking I was about to see Spielburg's first film "Duel".
We alway made sure that our family hired one of the old clinker Putt Putt dinghies for a day when we we were young and headed up the lake for an explore and picnic. So I have first hand experience of why the people who truly love them called the enginge "Stupid Turners". I spend a lot of time hanging over the side pushing the water around with my hands and other body parts. I wasn't a sailor then. but maybe part of the fascination was from here. They also hired out very heavy fibreglass canoes.
One of the boat hire places had boats called Grumpy, Sleepy, Doc etc .. all about 16ft and an 18footer called Snow White.
It certainly was a holiday town - very sleepy the rest of the time. Lakes on one side - better for fishing and small boats because the area is not really huge - a PDRacer would be more fun than a Goat ... you could see everything in one day on the Goat (ok .. maybe two - the Myall lakes would be lots of fun. Lots of shallow and quite strong tidal currents. And don't get lost among the oyster leases!
It went into a state of hypertourism with the local developer types wanting to create a Miami by the sea. The change in housing style was indicative.
Now like AJ says ... the economy subsists on a mix of superannuation and pension cheques. Lots of urban development around the lakes, a K-mart and big supermarkets to the North of the town and an average population age of ... maybe about mine. The boat hire businesses are a little bit marginal now so it is even hard to hire a tinnie. The canoes are now in plastic and still crap to paddle!
Still a nice place to visit. Interesting thing is all the people who live here are sun shy and spooked by skin cancer ... or live here anyhow ... or too old ... so the old OZ beach culture has disappeared. Very few of the locals now hang around on the beach putting hats and sunscreen on their kids and handing out sandwiches and walking to the shops for an icecream like we did.
However hang around on the beach a little and the people there are doing much the same thing as our extended family did ... you hear Chinese, Arabic, South American accented Portuguese and Spanish, Thai, Hindi. They walk their toddlers in the shallows and I am sure tell their kids "you can't go swimming until an hour after you have eaten or you will get cramps and die" just like my mum told everyone (and still does).
I find this amazing ... how do people who have moved from all over the world know how families should use beaches - is there a course they have to do??? It is really a case of the country shaping the people.
Amazing and wonderful.
Best wishes
MIK
Hey .. saw this one afloat opposite my Aunt's apartment. I'll let you all guess and see who works it out! I saw it being built about ... 15 years ago .. strip plank. the paint scheme for the leeboard is quite clever I think.
More pics here (too many)
http://picasaweb.google.com/boatmik/ForsterTuncurry# http://picasaweb.google.com/boatmik/...alkToTheSouth# 
