This town is the southcoast’s best kept secret
By CELESTE MITCHELL

It would be easy to miss Mossy Point on the NSW south coast. Blink and you couldzip right by the sliver of a town as you cruise George Bass Drive on the way southfrom Batemans Bay. Cradled by the Tomaga River to the north and CandlaganCreek to the south, the hamlet sits along a coastline that has remained largelyunder the radar – unless you’re from Canberra.
Its secret status might also be due to Google Maps’ failure to register some of itsnewer roads, as I realise on my drive to The Oaks Ranch. I end up on a gravel route,which quickly turns to dirt and ends with a locked gate. Mercifully, all is well after acall to reception and a shared moment with a kangaroo, watching as I lock the gatebehind me.
I’ve come in on the old road, I’m told. “Wait until you see the main entrance,” thebubbly Jess tells me over the phone. I roll down the grand, tree-lined driveway, donkeys in a paddock to my right and golfers returning to their buggies on my left,as the Spanish Mission-style guesthouse comes into view.
“My boyfriend grew up in Moruya and used to come here for class trips and horseriding,” Jess tells me, pressing a welcome drink tinged with rosemary and lime intomy hand. “It used to have purple walls and colourful bed sheets.”