It is thought that ‘Bermaguee’ (boat with no paddle) is derived from ‘permageua’, a word with an unknown meaning, from the vocabulary of the Dyirringany Aborigines who inhabited the area before white settlement. 

The port at Bermagui was established in the 1830s for the local dairy farmers and the town, planned in 1867, quickly developed into a fishing harbour.  Gold was found on the Bermagui River late in the nineteenth century but the rush was short-lived as finds were disappointing.

In spring the warm currents brought Marlin and Yellowfin Tuna close to the coast and charter boats would take divers, deep-sea and game anglers out to sea.

One of the most notable figures to exploit this aspect of Bermagui was American author of ‘westerns’, Zane Grey who wrote of his experiences in An American Angler in Australia (1937) and his posthumously published novel, Wilderness Fresh.  The town park is named after him and the local hotel has photographs and memorabilia of his stay. 

The crime novelist Arthur Upfield lived at Bermagui for a time in the 1950s.  His novel ‘Mystery of Swordfish Reef’ (1960), starts at Bermagui with the disappearance of a boat.

The story was probably inspired by the fate of geologist Lamont Young who was sent from Sydney to inspect the new goldfields at Bermagui in 1880, and who along with four others, mysteriously disappeared.