A thoughtful gift from a friend has brought back many memories for Geoff Kearns and his connection to the Kearns Boathouse on Yamba Road. An oil painting of the shed — found by chance and purchased at a good price — was chosen as a present for Geoff and his wife because it captures the spirit of Geoff’s childhood memories of Yamba and his family’s many trips to the town. This painting, along with photographs and information about the family boatshed built by his father, has now been generously donated to the museum.

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Over the years, people have often asked about the significance of the old derelict shed on the river side of Yamba Road adjacent to the Anglers Club. According to a 2004 Heritage Submission, the structure was originally built in 1950 by John Herbert “Jack” Kearns, a dairy farmer from Brushgrove, who was working on the shed at the time of the disastrous fire that destroyed The Ritz private hotel in Queen Street. The boatshed consisted of a single weatherboard room with an iron roof, a small verandah on the eastern side, and a separate toilet with a corrugated iron water tank attached to the verandah. A timber jetty extended from the shed into the Clarence River. It reflects a time when Australians seemed to live more freely than today, and when bureaucracy was more helpful than burdensome.

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Jack had obtained approval from the Department of Lands to construct the building below the high-tide mark for use as a boatshed. At the time, there were practically no other buildings further west in Yamba, and Yamba Road itself was only a rough gravel track. As shown in early photographs, another boatshed was later built alongside by Lav Davis of Palmers Channel (father of Ruby Kearns, Doug’s wife), but this second structure was eventually removed.

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The Kearns boatshed was used for around 12–15 years, serving both as a working boatshed and as a small weekender or holiday “shack” for the family. Inside, a wooden boat shared the space with a simple partition dividing the living area from the sleeping area — leaving very little room to spare. In the late 1960s, the lease of the boatshed was sold to Fred Phillips of Yamba, who intended to use it as a bait-selling outlet, though this never eventuated. The lease later lapsed, and the structure is now owned by NSW Crown Lands, which is responsible for its maintenance and conservation.

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The boatshed is listed as a heritage item in the Clarence Valley Local Environmental Plan 2011. Over the years, Council has received numerous letters from community members concerned about the lack of maintenance. The Rotary Club of Yamba at one time explored restoring the building as a resting place along the adjoining pathway, but the strict requirements of the Heritage Act proved too daunting.

Yamba developed as a beloved local holiday and recreation centre for the Clarence area, and buildings like the Kearns Boatshed are part of the town’s character and traditional values — features that deserve to be preserved for future generations. This boatshed has withstood floods, cyclones, and the pressures of urban development, surviving far more than many structures of its kind. It deserves to remain, yet it is now rapidly deteriorating due to a lack of maintenance, despite the obligations for its preservation under the Heritage Act 1977.

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Memories of Geoff Kearns and the Kearn's Boatshed 

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My brother, Rowan and I stayed there with Mum and Dad and sometimes with my grandparents who lived across the road from us in Brushgrove. 

 

I remember fishing off the wharf and catching bream. One strong memory is Dad catching a catfish which jumped around inside the shack and even though I got up on a chair, I got stabbed twice in the feet by the catfish. A week later I ended up in hospital with blood poisoning!

 

I remember sleeping on the floor in the bedroom and watching and listening to the water at high tides just inches below the floorboards.

 

Mum would cook up fish on the kerosene stove in the 'kitchen' and we had a big table we'd sit around to eat.

Sometimes we'd go along with Mum to a nearby rock wall where she would break off and open up oysters from the rocks and fill up some jam jars to take back.

 

I remember Dad having to walk along the sand with a shovel and the toilet pan to do the 'disposal'.

 

My parents told me that a few months after I was born (in 1953), all four of us lived in the shack for 4 or 5 months while they were looking for a place to rent in Yamba. I can't remember that one!

 

 

The old photos:-

The one of Mum walking on the sand with my brother Rowan would be in 1951 or 52.

 

The photo with me and two others on the wharf would be about 1958 or 59.

 

The other shack in the background of that photo was built by my other grandfather (Lav Davis from Palmers Channel) in about 1955. He was a bit jealous that his daughter's family had a shack and he didn't. But apparently after some years of little or no use, he pulled it down to use the timber for a pig pen on his farm!

 

So lots of memories and interesting stories!