Mooney Mooney

Straddling the point alongside which a creek of the same name empties into the Hawkesbury River, the Mooney Mooney village sits below the northern approach to the Sydney-Newcastle Expressway bridge crossing. It might be slightly off the beaten expressway track but the views across the Hawkesbury to Brooklyn make the journey well worth the effort. Traditionally, this is succulent oyster territory. The local industry took a bit of a blow in the late 1980s due to lower river situation problems, but the Hawkesbury water quality has been restored and the oysters are well and truly back and gracing the local tables. A number of craft offering river cruises operate out of Brooklyn. In fact there is no more relaxed way to explore the Hawkesbury than aboard the Mail Packet. The craft takes four hours or so to complete its run dropping off deliveries to isolated villages and settlements for which the river provides the only access to the outside world.