Catherine Hill Bay is a coastal bay and village on the southern peninsula forming

Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area in Greater Newcastle and part of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city from 7 September 1984. The area is situated adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is ...

, south of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

entrance channel at

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is part of the

City of Lake Macquarie The City of Lake Macquarie is a local government area in Greater Newcastle and part of the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia. It was proclaimed a city from 7 September 1984. The area is situated adjacent to the city of Newcastle and is ...

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a State (administrative division), state, province, divi ...

. The village is the oldest continuous settlement in the City of Lake Macquarie. The Aboriginal people in this area, the Awabakal were the first people of this land. A surf club is sited overlooking the beach that is quite popular for recreation.

Mining

The settlement was first made after land was purchased on 1 April 1865. The town of Cowper was created, to serve as a base for

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mining by the New Wallsend Company in 1873 with the first shipment on 17 December of that year. The name Catherine Hill was adopted to commemorate the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

''Catherine Hill'' that had run aground in 1867. Later, the Wallarah Coal Company mined and shipped coal from the area including its nearby Crangan Bay mine. This was taken over by the Coal and Allied Group. A railway originally was used to transport the coal to the wharf; later, trucks and automated loading belt systems were used.

Rutile Rutile is an oxide mineral composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2), the most common natural form of TiO2. Rarer Polymorphism (materials science), polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest ...

was mined from the beach sands during the 1960s.

Population

In the 2016 Census, there were 162 people in Catherine Hill Bay. 89.3% of people were born in Australia and 93.5% of people spoke only English at home.

Development

Proposals for rezoning and redevelopment of the area for housing were opposed by LMCC and residents as the land was zoned for conservation. Environmentalists contended that the heathlands around the village contained a large variety of wildflowers, some dwarfed into unusual forms from the exposed coastal conditions. On 1 September 2009, a court ruled the development agreement illegal. However, a new Housing Development of 550 houses was approved by the State Government in 2010. This new subdivision, called Beaches Catherine Hill Bay is outside the visual catchment of the heritage village.

Heritage listings

Catherine Hill Bay has been placed on the State Heritage Register as a Heritage Township: * No. 208 Radar Station RAAF *

Catherine Hill Bay Cultural Precinct Catherine Hill Bay Cultural Precinct is a heritage-listed company town at Catherine Hill Bay, City of Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 5 November 2010. History Cathe ...

References

External links

History of Catherine Hill Bay
(Lake Macquarie City Library) {{City of Lake Macquarie suburbs Suburbs of Lake Macquarie Bays of New South Wales Coastal towns in New South Wales Mining towns in New South Wales