Fingal Bay is the easternmost suburb of the Port Stephens

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 ...

in the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

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 ...

. The only population centre is the township of the same name, which itself is named after the adjacent, small, semi-circular bay. At th
2021 census
the population of the town was 1,635. Except for the township, most of Fingal Bay is included in the

Tomaree National Park Tomaree is a national park located in New South Wales, Australia, northeast of Sydney in the Port Stephens local government area. It is located on the shores of the Tasman Sea, extending north from Fishermans Bay to Shoal Bay passing throu ...

, which includes forested areas, coastal scrubland, beaches and most of the Fingal headland. The suburb does not include the bay itself.

Fingal Bay

Fingal Bay is about across at its widest point and from the mouth to the beach. The northeastern head of the bay is the Fingal headland, which is connected to the mainland via Fingal Spit, a

sand spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due t ...

about long. Waters to the northeast of the spit are known as "Fly Roads". Crossing between the mainland and the headland along the spit is considered dangerous. According to a sign on the beach, people have died crossing the spit, which is covered by breaking waves at high tide. The south-western head of the bay is Fingal Head, which is located southeast of the town. Between the two heads, the mouth is over wide. The bay includes a sandy beach about long.

History

The bay was originally known as "False Bay", because it could be mistaken for the entrance to Port Stephens. The name "Fingal Bay" appeared on an 1845 map prepared by Captain

Phillip Parker King Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Jo ...

Heritage listings

Fingal Bay has a number of heritage-listed sites, including

Point Stephens Light The Point Stephens Light is a heritage-listed active lighthouse located on Point Stephens, a point on an unnamed headland at the east of Fingal Bay, south of the entrance of Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia. The light serves to ass ...

on Shark Island.

Tourism campaign

Fingal Spit was a location for the 2006 "

So where the bloody hell are you? So where the bloody hell are you? was a A$180 million advertising campaign launched by Tourism Australia in 2006. It was created by the Sydney office of advertising agency M&C Saatchi, under the approval of Scott Morrison (the future Prime M ...

" advertising campaign filmed for

Tourism Australia Tourism Australia is the Australian Government agency responsible for promoting Australian locations as business and leisure travel destinations. The agency is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and employs 187 staff (inclu ...

and appears at the end of the advertisement.

Headland and Point Stephens

The irregularly shaped headland, which is sometimes mistakenly called "Fingal Island", covers an area of approximately , most of which is part of the Tomaree National Park, and reaches in height. Point Stephens was connected to the mainland prior to the "Maitland gale" in 1891. The southeasternmost point of the headland was named "Point Stephens" by

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

when he passed on 11 May 1770, honouring Sir Philip Stephens who was

Secretary to the Admiralty S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

. Stephens was a personal friend of Cook and had recommended him for command of the voyage. It seems Cook's initial choice had actually been Point Keppel (named after Augustus Keppel, a

Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty The Board of Admiralty (1628–1964) was established in 1628 when Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission. As that position was not always occupied, the purpose was to enable management of the day-to-day operational requi ...

), but instead he used Keppel later when he named

Keppel Bay Keppel Bay is a bay in Central Queensland, Australia at the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the coast of the Coral Sea. Extent Keppel Bay extends from Station Point on Curtis Island () in the Gladstone Region to Zilzie Point at Zilzie () i ...

. The name first appeared on chart 1070, prepared by Captain Phillip Parker King in 1845.

Lighthouse

As early as 1857, the need for a lighthouse on Point Stephens was identified, due to the proximity to the entrance of Port Stephens, and the dangers of the local coastline to ships. A high stone lighthouse was subsequently constructed in 1862. In 1973 the lighthouse keeper was replaced by automaded system powered by solar. The light is

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and has a range of .

Transport

Port Stephens Coaches Port Stephens Coaches is an Australian bus company operating services in Port Stephens and the Hunter Region. History In the 1940s, the Newcastle to Nelson Bay service was purchased by the Fogg family. In 1957, the route was purchased by Sid F ...

operate local services to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

as well as an express service to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

.Bus Timetables
Port Stephens Coaches

Notes

References

External links

Coastal Explorer Pacific Touring Route Sydney to Brisbane, Cartoscope, 4th edition, 2004
{{Bays of New South Wales , state=autocollapse Bays of New South Wales Headlands of New South Wales Suburbs of Port Stephens Council Towns in the Hunter Region Beaches of New South Wales