The New Manning Valley Pioneers

I am relatively new to the Manning Valley, so I’m not able to report much that relates to the history of the area.

Nevertheless, my friends and I have owned land on Mitchells Island for 14 years.

In this time, we have become moderately well-known. You might not recognise us on the street. But you quite possibly might have heard about us—the six Shedders.¹

Around about 2003, we three couples were on the cusp of retiring from Sydney. We knew that as retirees we might have difficulty adjusting to a major move. So we thought, let’s move together. We took it one step further and built our home on Mitchells Island to accommodate all three couples.

Mitchells Island is such a beautiful environment to live in. There are horse and cattle farms, eucalypt and paperbark forests, water boundaries formed by the ocean, Manning River and Scott’s Creek. The variety and numbers of birdlife is astonishing.

I feel blessed to be a New Islander, slowly learning about the rich history of the Manning Valley and adding to it at the same time. The best thing about moving here is how welcome we’ve been made to feel.

Author: Eve Grzybowski