Batemans Bay businesswoman and tourism trailblazer Robin Innes, 87, died at her beloved Oceanview guesthouse on 14 October 2025. Photo: Supplied.
The legacy left by Batemans Bay matriarch Robin Innes will be one of enduring love for her family and community.
The 87-year-old tourism trailblazer, businesswoman, and “Grandma to all” passed away on 14 October at her beloved ‘Oceanview’ home in the arms of extended family.
“She had all her family with her, all the kids and all the love in the world,” daughter Elizabeth Innes said.
Robin’s own “deep and resounding love” for her family and Batemans Bay itself will resonate for generations to come.
“Her fingerprints and passion are embedded in this community,” the former Eurobodalla mayor said.
“She loved with great gusto and an incredible zest for life – and it shone across her family, friends and the town.”
A mother of five – to Stephen, Ben, Grant, Neil and Elizabeth, and grandmother to 15 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren – Robin had a way of embracing everyone into her family.
“Not only was she our mum … she was the matriarch of Batemans Bay,” Elizabeth said.
“Everyone knew her as Grandma – that’s how inclusive she was. And when she took you into the fold, you could not help but feel how earnest and genuine she was.”
Robin, together with her late husband ‘Merv’, will perhaps be best remembered for the indelible contribution they made to Batemans Bay’s iconic fishing heritage.
For more than 65 years and across three generations, the Innes family has operated the now famous eatery, The Boatshed, and from humble beginnings built what would become a boating and tourism icon.
Indeed, the young fledgling family of Robin, Merv and their three small boys, Steve, Ben and Grant, first lived in the upstairs quarters of the once-ramshackle relic when they moved to the town in 1962.
The rest, as they say, is very public history.
Robin Grant was born in Goulburn, NSW, in 1938 to fitter and turner Norm Grant and his wife Jean. The family moved to Bundanoon when Robin was seven, where she attended primary school before completing high school in Bowral. She had three adored brothers in Doug, Dennis and Geoff.
At the age of 17, Robin began training as a nurse at Sydney’s Camperdown Children’s Hospital, but that would come to an abrupt halt when she met the love of her life, Merv. The pair married in Bundanoon before the move to the Bay.
The couple shared “an incredible relationship” and worked very hard to build their life and business together.
A young Robin Innes pictured with her beloved husband, Merv, and their five children, Stephen, Ben, Grant, Neil and Elizabeth. Picture supplied.
Merv, who passed away 20 years ago, was Robin’s biggest supporter.
“Dad was her rock while Mum was the blue-sky thinker and dreamer,” Elizabeth said.
But Robin also had a wonderfully humorous grasp on the realities of life, and her youngest child recalls a saying their mum often trotted out after returning from long days working at The Boatshed.
“She’d say, ‘If ever I get ahead of myself, there is nothing more humbling than having to gut a box full of mullet!'” Elizabeth laughed.
In many ways, their mother was “the founder of tourism in Batemans Bay”, she said.
Robin also had a deeply ingrained sense of civic duty, and her children are still to get their heads around “just how many committees, organisations and associations she was involved with”.
“She was definitely a jump-in-with-both-boots person, and we all had to go along for the ride!” Elizabeth said.
“Steve and I would look at each other and say, ‘What have we got to do now?'”
Robin stood for the One Nation Party for Bega in the 1999 NSW state election and previously served as a Eurobodalla Shire councillor from 1980 to 1982 and again from 1984 to 1986.
Robin and Merv Innes shared an ‘incredible relationship’ in life, love and business. Photo: Supplied.
Elizabeth concedes their mother “certainly set the bar high”.
She also loved the simple pleasures.
A “good cup of tea, her garden and beautiful home” – the heritage-listed ‘Oceanview’ guesthouse where she lived for 57 years.
“Mum was a passionate preserver of history,” Elizabeth said. “She was also a collector of unique treasures from the past.”
Robin would embark on the rescue and renovation of several historic homes, including ‘Runnymead’ at Runnyford and ‘Wrayville’ on the Clyde River.
But it was at Oceanview that Robin laid down her roots and spread the branches of her boundless capacity for love.
From taking in foster children for years to being one of the first residents to host exchange students from Japan, the house “was never just the five of us kids”, her children said.
Their mother could whip up a meal for the masses out of nothing and always be relied on for a hug and a cup of tea, served with sage words of advice.
In her final days, Robin took comfort and solace in the outpouring of support, love and visits she received from so many of those whose lives she enriched in countless ways.
Fittingly, the chimes of the majestic grandfather clock in “the house that always loved a party” were kept sounding in her honour until the end.
The family is particularly grateful for the dedication of the nurses, doctors and medical staff who cared for Robin during the final stages of aggressive liver cancer.
Hers will not be a funeral filled with morbid sadness, Elizabeth insisted.
“We are celebrating a life well lived. A woman who believed in getting out there and living every day.”
The funeral to celebrate the life of Robin Innes will be held on Wednesday, 22 October, at 2 pm, at Broulee Memorial Gardens & Crematorium.
