Cadboro Bay Real Estate

Organic Cadboro Bay living. Only steps to the ocean and the shops of Caddy Bay sits this sweet home on Mystic Pond. 4 Bed & 2 Bath with a custom kitchen & open plan living is just the beginning of this story. Oak flooring, along with a custom wood burning fireplace creates the warmth that this home exudes. Taking advantage of the exceptional sun, the organic gardens were planted to provide food for the homeowners and to teach the children sustainability. Espalier fruit trees are only just coming into their own and with the additional new greenhouse, the growing is just getting started. The backyard is on Mystic pond and from the sun drenched decks one can watch the wildlife. Less than a minute walk down the quiet street is the beach access to Cadboro Bay where one can swim, sail, kayak and paddleboard. A mooring buoy was installed for the use of this homeowner and can certainly be used by you! Walk to the shops & all levels of school from this superb location to live your life.

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Beach Living

Cadboro Bay History

Cadboro Bay is a bay near the southern tip of Vancouver Island and its adjacent neighbourhood in the municipalities of Saanich and Oak Bay in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Cadboro Bay was the site of Sungayka, a village of the Songhees Nation for some 8,000 years prior to the relocation of its people to Victoria's Inner Harbour in the mid 1800s. The land between Gyro Park and Telegraph Bay is included in a Douglas Treaty that is now before the courts. Cadboro Bay takes its name from the first European vessel to enter the bay, the Hudson's Bay Company schooner Cadboro.

Today, Cadboro Bay also gives its name to the neighbourhood situated between the bay itself and the University of Victoria, bounded by the Uplands district to the south, Ten Mile Point to the east and the Queenswood neighbourhood to the north. At the heart of the neighbourhood is the local centre, Cadboro Bay Village.

A prominent resident of the neighbourhood in the first half of the 20th century was Frank V. Hobbs. His brother, Edwin, bought land in Cadboro Bay for a dairy farm, while Frank Hobbs engaged in business in Victoria and other parts of Vancouver Island. Upon the death of Edwin, Frank moved to Cadboro Bay, and became active in municipal politics and on the Victoria School Board. He was influential in expanding the provision of high schools for greater Victoria. In recognition of this and other services he provided to the area, the local elementary school, opened in 1951, was named in his honour.

The Royal Victoria Yacht Club is located on the Oak Bay side of the bay and is situated on a large archeological site of the Songhees Nation. The University of Victoria is located just up the hill from Cadboro Bay, and the UVic Sailing Club maintains facilities and boats on Cadboro Bay beach for the use of its students.

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Beach Living

Cadboro-Gyro Park

Immediately adjacent to the beach itself is Cadboro-Gyro park. The park is popular with children in the neighbourhood as well as other parts of Victoria due to its large concrete climbing structures, in the form of an octopus, a large salmon, a tugboat and the local Cryptid, the sea monster Cadborosaurus.

The park was created on 4.37 acres of land bought from the Goward estate by the Gyro Club in 1953, which it donated to Saanich in 1954, and subsequently increased in 1961 by the expropriation of adjacent land by Saanich. The park is now 6.022 hectares (14.88 acres).In the summer of 2014 the play area was improved, including the relocation of the octopus and salmon as well as a range of other improvements

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Beach Living

Mystic Pond History

The University of Victoria owns the property known as Mystic Vale but as Hobbs Creek winds its way down the hillside, it has been channeled into a number of man-made ponds on private property. You can see one of these ponds on the south east corner of Cadboro Bay Rd and Killarney Rd. In the winter it is full of ducks, usually including the beautiful Wood Ducks. If you go down the short Mystic Lane, the upper side of that street contains a large pond but the ducks don’t care for this pond. It is probably too exposed to predators.

The largest pond is at the bottom near the ocean on Waring Place and that is the pond generally known as Mystic Pond. It is surrounded by houses whose owners actually own part of the pond as part of their lot. They can now be bought and sold as individual parcels and a few years back, one parcel was up for sale on the MLS system, separate from the house that it was originally attached to. That house didn’t sell but perhaps Saanich bought up that parcel as it has been doing with several of the other parcels over time. Saanich probably owns about half of the parcels now.

In about 2005 or so, there was a restoration project on Mystic Pond. They cleared out some vegetation and trees and it was suppose to be a great improvement but there is some discussion as to whether it made any difference to the pond. Fortunately the cover has filled in again and the ducks once more feel safe hiding in the understory. A recent change since about 1990 is the increase in the number of Great Blue Heron nests surrounding the pond in the high cottonwoods. Each year has shown an increase in the number of nests. It is quite noisy when the Herons come back to do their nesting each year. Winter is a good time to see where the nests are situated when the leaves are off the trees.

In winter, there are a number of ducks who enjoy the pond. As well as the Wood Ducks, there are commonly Mallard and American Wigeon. You may also see Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead, Green-winged Teal, American Coot, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler and, occasionally, a Eurasian Wigeon. Canada Geese often use the pond as a safe place to spend the night. Glaucous-winged Gulls are very common and Mew Gulls are also seen on the pond. Stickleback are also in the pond but it’s the mucky vegetative matter that most of the ducks enjoy. Red-winged Blackbirds are in good numbers around the pond. The Belted Kingfisher makes its presence known and the bushes are filled with many other small woodland birds throughout the year. The water helps to attract the birds. Members of Victoria Natural History Society visit this spot to enjoy the numerous birds here.

The residents are concerned that the silt and other debris from upstream is gradually filling in the ponds so they are getting very shallow. The owners and other concerned people are worried about what will happen in future if nothing is done upstream. The entire area around Hobbs Creek in Mystic Vale is devoid of vegetation due to the heavy traffic, especially trodden down by off-lease dogs. Not a blade of grass is able to grow around the water course in Mystic Vale. The heavy rains cause serious runoffs coming down the hillsides around the creek and add significant silt into Hobbs Creek. There will need to be cooperation between UVic, Saanich and Oak Bay if this magical pond is to be able to continue as a viable water way.

Mystic Pond History submitted by Agnes Lynn, March 2011

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