Mike Scanlon | Lake Macquarie's forgotten history

Take one pile of rocks visible just offshore at Coal Point.

There were once timber jetty stumps here as well, marking the loading point to take coal across the lake to the south side of Swansea channel, and on to Sydney.

The coal cargoes came from the first coal mine at Lake Macquarie.

Founded almost 177 years ago, back in 1840 by the enterprising missionary, the Reverend L.E. (Lancelot) Threlkeld, the mine was to supplement his meagre income.

His historic, now-vanished mine called Ebenezer, only operated for five years before it was put up for sale at auction. The coal seams were then worked under various leasees until as late as 1906.

The jetty collapsed, and these days you might be hard-pressed to find the former mine’s exact location, now on private land in suburban Coal Point.

Threlkeld Reserve though isn’t too far away as a reminder of times past.

Threlkeld’s first coal shipments were transported diagonally across the lake to Swansea in a 20-ton vessel called Ann.

The coal was unloaded at a Swansea channel wharf, and from there it was then re-transported out to sea through the channel to a larger ship moored near Moon Island, to be carried to Sydney markets.

Within a short time, Threlkeld owned and was running six shallow-draught schooners on his coal run, a rare feat at the time for any coal owner.

By 1844 though, he was struggling financially, partly due to his debts and the official monopoly on coal mining enjoyed by the rival A.A.Company. He sold up the following year.

When Rev Threlkeld started his coal venture near his Aboriginal mission in then-remote west Lake Macquarie, some native canoes were still around.

These probably evolved across 7000 years, made from bark stripped from tree trunks.

These big ‘scar’ trees, some still visible today, have been protected by the NSW Government since 1974.   

And reviving the past is the aim of staff at the picturesque Lake Macquarie Art Gallery (LMAG) at Booragul, in its two current exhibitions.

One is ‘Saltwater Country’, a touring show relating to indigenous artists in Northern Australia.

Of probably greater interest locally, however, is the second display entitled ‘Lake Macquarie: Living Cultures’ which includes an explanation why some old-time fishermen once wore wooden clogs.

The exhibition is described by LMAG director Debbie Abraham as an ongoing series where history, memory and culture all intersect.

She said the show was the first in a new series interpreting and documenting local history through images, stories, cultural practices and contemporary art.

She said the initial focus of the gallery was on ‘working watercraft’.

This included an examination of local ferries, cargo vessels and a small traditional bark canoe, the first working watercraft, made by the Aboriginal community, now suspended from the ceiling to waist level.

Much later, a European – James Lewis Boyd – built more than 200 boats, especially during World War II, and mainly for the Americans, at his Swansea shipyards.

Today, no trace remains, except largely in family memory. 

But let’s step backwards to the early, now-overlooked Lake Macquarie Chinese community that flourished in Swansea for about 40 years.

Two groups of fishermen arrived from China in the mid-1850s to settle in the then, scarcely-populated area of Swansea.

Probably numbering between 34 and 50 people in total, their main livelihood was catching and curing fish, transporting their salted catches to Sydney, the then colonial goldfields and possibly back even to China.

Using large cotton hemp hauling nets, drift nets and hand lines, the busy Chinese community also built sheds onshore for fish drying, and extensive gardens to grow vegetables to be carried by boat to the Sydney markets, together with hand-made cabbage palm hats, also for sale.

Needing access to shipping, these now-forgotten fishermen also built two Swansea wharves, one on the channel side and one on the lake itself.

The wharves were later used by ferries (see 1940 picture).

Once fish were caught, they were sorted by size, the smallest cleaned, scaled and placed in tubs ready for pulping.  

The Chinese fishermen wore wooden clogs to crush the fish in wooden tubs, like grapes are crushed for winemaking.

The larger fish were cleaned, but not scaled, then heavily salted and placed on racks to be dried in the sun and packaged.

By 1863, Chinese fishermen were producing between 60 and 70 tons of cured fish annually.

But around the 1890s the Chinese community seems to have disappeared from Swansea, probably due to growing government restrictions placed on Chinese immigration and “continued social and legal discrimination”.

Equally interesting, on show is a copy of a rare Lake Macquarie map started in the summer of 1907-08 and compiled by Newcastle harbour pilot Captain Ernest Snowden Deed and his eldest sons.

While he still worked in Newcastle, Captain Deed had a waterfront weekender at Carey Bay.

Using an ex-naval cutter, a yawl named ‘Black Angel’, the trio took extensive soundings of Lake Macquarie during their summer holidays during a period of seven years.

The boys swung a leadline while their father jotted down the depths they recorded.

The original, hand-drawn ‘holiday’ map was the first true survey of lake depths and remained vital for decades, a godsend to fishermen and sailors alike.

The original linen map was then donated by the family to University of Newcastle in 2007, 100 years after it was created.  

Marked on this extraordinary map, there’s a ‘Deeds landing’ on Pulbah Island (Boroyirong) and curious inked references, like “Shelsea – formerly Nords Wharf”, and a Stringray Bay is located just east of the present Fennell Bay bridge.

The exhibition also reminds viewers that suburban Rathmines was once the site of the largest flying boat base in the Southern Hemisphere.

From here, the RAAF operated 168 Catalina aircraft between 1941-1952.

They were arguably the lake’s most effective ‘working watercraft’ ever with the amphibian aircraft having a range of 5000kms to protect Australia’s coastline and mine distant enemy harbours with aerial bombs.

The Living Cultures: Working Watercraft exhibition is on show at the Hunter’s only waterfront gallery until January 29.

mikescanlon.history@hotmail.com