Catherine Hill Bay is a coastal bay and village on the southern peninsula forming Lake Macquarie, south of the

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

entrance channel at

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New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

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. It is part of the

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

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 federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

. 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 Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

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 ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

''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 polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at vis ...

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. There were 111 private dwellings. At the 2021 census, the population had increased to 943 people and the number of private dwellings had increased to 404.

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

Incidents

* In April 2024, a 'weather incident' led to the failure of a

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

next to a road, causing a

landslip Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslide ...

. On 5 April, the Lake Macquarie City Council was notified and closed the road to vehicles. While interim measures were implemented, the council stated that they would work on a permanent solution. * On 20 April 2024, a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

on a construction site overflowed after the village experienced heavy rainfall. Nearby roads and properties were

flooded A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civ ...

, prompting the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

and SES to close a main street.

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