It was a legitimate local industry and some of the opposition levelled at the Norwegian company was that it was operating in the bay's waters without making a contribution to the local economy.

One of the vocal opponents was Nowra doctor, Albert Bobart whose cryptic comments were published in an edition of the Shoalhaven Telegraph in June 1914:

"Those Norwegian whalers should be kept out of Jervis Bay," Dr Bobart said.

"They are of no earthly use to us; will buy as little as possible from us; import everything from Norway; pay low wages and deplete our whaling industry; clear off to Norway with the oil in their own ships.

"Besides, they are a nuisance, not only for refuse, but the blowflies, and the fishing industry will be affected too."

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During the previous year while the company had operated out of Jervis Bay, it had captured 487 whales from which had come 20,000 casks of oil worth £70,000.

It had also taken back to Norway thousands of pounds' worth of guano fertiliser and whalebone.

Not all of the whales were captured close to the Bay, for there is a report of two being caught 30 miles north of Sydney Heads and being brought south, lashed to the gunboat Campbell.

When interviewed in August 1913, Captain Hans Egeness of the Loch Tay said that his whaler had left home 16 months earlier.

The enterprise had been set up by a wealthy Norwegian company to operate in Tasmanian waters, but whales had been found scarce there, and they had done best in Jervis Bay.

To that point they had suffered a loss of £40,000 but he looked for the search to pick up.

He said that expenses on the factory ship amounted to £1500 per week including insurance and provisions, but not wages.

The 113 men were on regular wages, but those on the factory ships earned an additional percentage for each cask of oil, while those on the whale boats earned incentives for each whale, depending on its class.

Not all were happy with their lot, and there were said to be some deserters.

Captain Egeness expressed the opinion that a factory on the shore would be a paying concern.

From the time the Norwegians arrived there was some opposition from Shoalhaven residents.

One enthusiastic fisherman, J. Miller of Cambewarra wrote to local newspapers in November 1912, claiming that Jervis Bay was so polluted, that the fish were leaving.

"The shores were strewn with large pieces of blubber and intestines," he said, "and the oysters were turning white".

This was being blamed on the two large factory ships, Polynesia and Loch Tay.

The Shoalhaven News mentioned that protests were being arranged for both Nowra and Huskisson, but added that by the time they were sufficiently large to command attention, both factory ships and their gunboats would have left for New Zealand waters.

While the Norwegians do not appear to have returned the following year, there was a proposal to establish a whaling station on the shores of Jervis Bay at the conclusion of World War I.

However by this time the Royal Australian Naval College had been established in the vicinity of the favoured site, and enquiries made by the Commonwealth Naval Board led to advice that it would be unwise to permit the establishment of a whaling station on the suggested site.

Information thanks to Shoalhaven Historical Society.