08/09/2026
The mystery of Mystery Bay 🕵️♀️
On the night of 10 October 1880, five men vanished from the waters of the NSW South Coast, leaving behind an abandoned boat and a mystery that has never been solved.
Among them was government geological surveyor Lamont Young, who had been inspecting the Montreal goldfield near Bermagui. He was accompanied by his assistant, Max Schneider, and three boatmen, Thomas Towers, William Lloyd and Daniel Casey.
Their journey would become one of Australia's most enduring maritime mysteries.
The local story goes that their boat got into trouble in the darkness and the men were forced to abandon it. Out on the water, they could see the distant light of Montague Island Lighthouse. Believing it marked the closest land, they began swimming towards it, unaware that the shoreline at Mystery Bay was much closer than they realised.
They were never seen again.
Their boat was later discovered abandoned on the rocks at Mutton Fish Point, with belongings still inside. Search parties combed the coastline, rewards were offered and the disappearance attracted attention across the country. But no bodies were recovered, and no one could establish what had happened to the five men.
The lighthouse explanation is a local account rather than a proven historical finding. Other theories have suggested an accident at sea or foul play, but none has ever conclusively solved the mystery.
Over time, the place where the boat was found became known as Mystery Bay, a name that still carries the unanswered questions of that October night.
Imagine standing on the shoreline today, looking out towards Montague Island. Somewhere in those waters, according to the old story, five men may have been swimming towards a distant light, believing it was their only hope, while the safety of the mainland lay so close behind them.
More than 140 years later, the sea has never given up its answers.
Have you heard this version of the Mystery Bay story, or do you know another local account of what happened to the five men?
