1. The boatshed, home and garage of Mr Aileff. The Aileffs had a service station in Goulburn and moved to the coast The big garage fronted the laneway at the top of the block with large double doors. The garage contained their drop pit toilet. To the right of these doors stood a paling fence that fronted the three other boatshed blocks.

2. To the right of Aileff's house is a shed owned by Royd.

3. The next two sheds on the right hand side were owned by Eric Baulch. Overthe following years Eric established a boat hire business however lost his boast during the war when all the hire and private boats were hidden for the war years in channels up the river where they rotted.

Winton bought the house and then Royd's shed. he was a fisherman and sold fish and prawns he caught from a small building he constructed in the area that was the old garage. adjacent to this shop (now the cafe kitchen) he had his large freezer which is not the top outside concreted area of the Red Box Cafe.

Winton sold to Ron Valentine who owned the Tern Inn at the time. Ron used the coolroom for his milk run and had his son living in the house. After selling the Tern Inn and the milkrun Ron and Phyliss settled into the home and began preparing fish and chips from the small top building. They were the first to offer any food in the boatshed bay.

Though not officially allowed Ron continued to sell fish and chips and was one day given the "go ahead" to keep on with his business by a council building inspector. The permission had been given correctly or otherwise and from this the gates opened for others to follow.

Meanwhile the two sheds next door owned by Baulch sold to Tony and Laurel Mackenzie. The white one to the right fell over with the push of a hammer and the other remained on the double block until it was sold to Lynch in 1995.

The Lyches constructed the new two story besser and cladding building and opened it as the
Lakeview Cafe serving coffee and takeaways

Lynch built the first evolution of the building with it's small verandah overlooking the lake. The Fergusons then bought the property in 1997 and extended the upper and lower decks and closing in the verandah to make it weather proof.

"The Boatshed"

"The Boatshed" was built by Howell after 1938 and before the start of the Second World War.

Howell sold to Hedley Marks and Eric Ryall who both lived in Jutland Avenue

Ryall and Marks sold to Nossiter

Nossiter sold to Bruce Rainbow

Bruce Rainbow sold to Arthur Blacker

Arthur Blacker sold to Tony Mackenzie in 1976

Tony Mackenzie sold to Lynch 1995

Lynch sold to Hooks in 1999

Hooks sold to the O'Brien's 2001

John and Janine Suthern leased 2009 trading as the Tuross Boatshed and Cafe

early 1950's - to the right is the shed first built by Milner.

early 1950's

1963 - Nossiter's Boats

Nossiter's 1963

Mr Nossiter

Blacker's Boatshed

Arthur Blacker

Mackenzies Boat Shed 1976- 1995

above - circa Terry and Deb O'Brien

Above: Muffy was the longest boatshed resident of all living for 21 years by the lake watching thousands on thousands of visitors arrive and leave, experiencing floods and storms and all the time just happy for a fish or two if they were spare and the occasional pat

Currently under management of John and Janine

Laing's Boatshed

Mr Albert Laing came to Tuross Head on long service leave from the City of Sydney Fire brigade. It was during the war years and he camped for three months at Lavender Point fishing and prawning. His son Jim came down for a weeks holiday during this time. Over the following years the Laings enjoyed holidays in Tuross and one year they saw that Tiedemans boatshed was being auctioned.

In those days only one shed was built on the site (the original shed is still there - being the southern "half" of the boastshed. The property failed to reach its reserve price however the Laings (Snr and Jnr) were the highest bidders on the day. As they drove through Moruya back to Sydney they called into Kings Real Estate and left a further £50. They were contacted a week later to be informed their offer had been accepted.

At the time Alan Baulch (Eric's father) was leasing the boatshed from Tiedeman for £10 per year and the Laings allowed him to continue using it for several years more. Baulch was mainly prawning Coila Lake and taking out tons of prawns. One night Laing Snr went prawning with Baulch. There was the sound of an approaching storm with rumbling that soon revealed itself as millions of prawns running. The volume of prawns being caught in Coila in the 1950's was staggering.

Jim Laing at this time was still working with an engineering company in Mascot and didn't manage to permanently come to Tuross until 1960.

One year the Coila Lake entrance opened and the prawns escaped to move enmass down the coast and come back into Tuross Lake.

Mr A Laing

Newly arrived 1959

Jimmy

Mr Laing and Jimmy

1959 - the new fleet - the fleet was built up over tweo years, 1958 and 1959 The boats remained in service until the 1990's and were destroyed in 2008.

Above: Front page of Tuross Lake map for boat hirers

Above: 1966 - note new Holden HD station wagon - the boatshed is in two sections - the righthand section is
the original Tiedeman shed - the left hand side is the addition built by Laings. The house above was built in the late 1950's with
the house extension and double garage added a few years later

Above: In this photo is Harold Black, Jim Laing and one of Harold's grandaughters. Harold was the next door
neighbour at what is now the Farmer cottage ans boatshed.

Above: Photos of the fleet in 2008

In Memory of Jim - July 23rd, 2010

Above: Jim's last boat leaving the baotshed Nov 9th, 2010
Its new owners are going to restore it back to working order and put it back on hire.
The new owners are Andersons Boatshed at Booker Bay.
The Owner is Boyd Myers and he works with an old engine builder named Rob Graham.

Below: a wonderful slide show from the Laing collection