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Aboriginal name meaning island. Also written Bulba. In 1870 it was said to have been known as Barryowen, possibly with the same derivation as Barrenjoey at Pittwater, to which it bears some resemblance.
It has been suggested that it was used for corroborees.
It remained Crown land.
There is no record of permanent settlers but a number of people stayed there temporarily: fishermen and timbercutters. It was used for keeping cattle, probably stolen. They were swum over from Little Wangi, now Point Wolstonecroft. In 1870 a Mr. Harris of Wallsend is said to have placed a pair of rabbits there for breeding purposes. Prior to 1917 it was leased as cattle pasture, the cattle being swum over.
In 1917 the Australasian Society of Patriots suggested to the government that it should be made into a reserve for native species of flora and fauna. At this time it was under the care of Lake Macquarie Shire Council, which favoured the idea and the Bulba Trust was set up in 1920 with John Moloney as Secretary. Native flora in the form of ferns, flowers and orchids was brought to the island. Kangaroos, koalas, wombats, wallabies and emus were settled on the island. They were brought over on Jack Richardson's launch. There was not enough food for them all and food was imported. Two emus named Emily and Marie, used to swim out to meet boats and were favourites with visitors.
In 1919 it was named Edden Park in honour of the Minister for Mines but the name was never used. In 1923 there were reports of animals dying of thirst and the island being overrun by black (ship) rats. There was an inspection by the Director of Taronga Park Zoo, who identified the rats as a variety of Australian marsupials. In 1926 Mr. W. Nord of Nords Wharf claimed that the animals were still dying of hunger and thirst.
In 1928 the Trust received government assistance to employ a caretaker. In 1929 the island was declared a reserve and the notice in the Government Gazette used the spelling Pulbah and stated that it was 150 acres. It was forbidden to bring dogs, cats, ferrets or foxes to the island or to light fires or use firearms. A cottage and a wharf were constructed by Jack Richardson; 12 acres were enclosed with a wirenetting fence, and a motor launch was supplied. The first caretaker was Mr. J. Sharp, a naturalist who set up a small museum.
In 1930 Pulbah was visited by the Governor of NSW, Sir Philip Game (who dismissed Jack Lang). The same year the government botanist E. Cheech inspected the island and made a preliminary study of its plant life. At this time visitors were brought by ferry usually from Toronto to see the animals. Concrete tanks were constructed to increase the water supply. Their remains can still be seen on the north side of the island.
By 1932 the island was again without a caretaker and vandals had caused damage and shot animals. The Bulba Trust appointed an unemployed English patternmaker named Thompson Noble as the new caretaker. He was a lover of nature and of animals and especially of birds and lived happily on the island during the Depression writing poems and prose pieces about his island home.
These were good years for Pulbah and the Trust planned better sanitation, baths, a picnic ground with a pavilion and a windmill to pump water. Noble is believed to have left the island in 1938 and was followed by E. Ralston who stayed for one year.
By 1940 the R.S.P.C.A. was raising money for food for the animals by donations. Due to the wartime manpower shortage, no caretaker could be procured, so the animals had to be removed from Pulbah, some to Wangi and some, it is believed, to the Wattagans. An attempt was made to stock the island with Parma wallabies in 1972 when 36 were released and a research team from Macquarie University attempted to monitor the experiment but they failed to become established.
After the war the island reverted to nature, the cottage fell down and so did the wharf. The foundations of the wharf may be seen at low tide on the north side of the island. The rats, marsupial or otherwise, remain and so do the goannas. Not all the koalas were evacuated. Three were found shot dead on the beach in 1960. There was a definite sighting of one in a tree by a group from the Newcastle Flora and Fauna Society during an excursion to Pulbah in 1969, and a reported sighting in 1976.
Pulbah remains a favourite picnic spot for Lake Macquarie people in its natural state, without baths, pavilion or windmill.
