We love our patch of the Humpback Highway. But every so often something runs a little further up the coast that we think our whale watchers should know about. This is one of them.
About an hour north of Jervis Bay, a limited Indigenous whale watching cruise is running out of Shellharbour this season. This is a Shellharbour cruise, run by our friends at Shellharbour Wild, departing from Shellharbour Marina, not from Fishermens Wharf.
Here is why, and how to catch it while the dates are open.
What it is (and where it leaves from)
This is not a standard sightseeing run. Over two hours on the water, it pairs the Yuin people’s ancient connection to the whale with the marine science that studies the same migration today. Storytelling, songlines and a smoking ceremony sit alongside contemporary whale research. Two ways of knowing the humpback, told side by side.
The important details for planning a trip:
- Departs: Shellharbour Marina, 13 Marina Drive, Shell Cove. That is roughly an hour up the coast from Jervis Bay.
- Duration: around two hours aboard the Cat Balou, a purpose built catamaran.
- When: limited dates only, inside the May to November whale season.
- Run by: Shellharbour Wild, with Gumaraa Aboriginal Experience and researcher Dr Jodi Edwards.
If you are coming from Sydney or Canberra, Shellharbour sits a little closer than we do, so it can make an easy day trip in its own right, or a good reason to make a weekend of the south coast.
The people who make it what it is
The reason we rate this cruise is who leads it. The culture is shared by the people it belongs to, not narrated from a script.
- Gumaraa Aboriginal Experience, founded by Richard Campbell with co-owner Lisa Bazzano, shares culture and the smoking ceremony on board. Gumaraa works across the Dharawal and Yuin Nations of this coast.
- Dr Jodi Edwards, a University of Wollongong whale researcher and a Yuin woman, brings both the science of the migration and knowledge of the Indigenous whale songlines of this coast.
That combination is genuinely rare. It is the sort of morning that stays with you.
How it differs from a cruise with us
Plenty of people do both, and they are not the same experience.
- With us on Jervis Bay, our whale and dolphin cruises run daily through the season, out among the sea cliffs, sea caves and the resident bottlenose dolphins of the bay. It is the classic Jervis Bay day on the water.
- The Shellharbour Indigenous whale watching cruise is a slower, story led experience on select dates only, built around Yuin culture and whale science rather than the sightseeing loop.
If whales are the reason you keep coming back to this coast, they make a great pair across a weekend. Us one day, the cultural cruise up north on one of its rare dates.
As always with any cruise, the whales are wild and no one can promise a sighting. What is guaranteed on this one is the cultural experience and the people leading it.
Catching the Indigenous whale watching cruise before the dates run out
Because the cultural cruise only runs when Gumaraa and Dr Edwards are aboard, the dates are few and they release as they are confirmed. When one goes up, it tends to fill. So if it appeals, book the date that is open rather than waiting for the ideal weekend.
You book this one directly with Shellharbour Wild. Check their upcoming dates and reserve your spot on their Aboriginal Cultural Whale Cruise page.
And when you are ready for a day on Jervis Bay itself, you know where to find us.
Book a whale cruise with us here in Huskisson at Jervis Bay Wild.
