Our Past - History

Traditional occupants and European discovery

Before the arrival of European settlers in east Lake Macquarie , the area was occupied by Aboriginal people of the Awabakal clan. Their name for the area was Toolouweraraba.

Catherine Hill Bay takes its European name from a shipwreck. A wooden, two-masted topsail schooner of 65 tons, called the Catherine Hill was wrecked on the beach in June 1867 during a gale. The mate and cook were lost overboard in the heavy seas. When rescuers finally arrived at the scene they noticed - and reported on -- coal seams in the cliff face.

Coal mining begins - and fails

The history of coal mining in Catherine Hill Bay began in 1865 when Jacob Montefiore and Thomas Hale obtained a mining lease on 265 acres bordering the southern part of Catherine Hill Bay . Purchase of the land was not completed until 10 years later. Around the same time, Robert Saddington and Charles Parbury acquired 635 acres in the area.

The New Wallsend Coal Mining Co., founded in 1873 by Hale and Montefiore, first mined coal directly from a seam in the cliffs at the southern end of Catherine Hill Bay beach. The first shipment of coal was made on December 23 1873 . A jetty was built from the cliff face into the sea so that the coal could be loaded directly on to a vessel.

In 1876 the Newcastle Herald reported "30 or 40 habitations, 2 hotels, a store, post office and a bakery. 70 men were employed at this time".

But in July 1875 ill-fortune befell the new company when their collier, Susannah Cuthbert foundered at Long reef, 7 miles north of Sydney Heads. Problems with having to rely on other shipping and a dispute with miners over coal hewing rates were too much for the fledging company. It dissolved in March 1876 and the mine closed.

A new start

In 1888 a new company, the Wallarah Coal Company, was offered to investors in England . Now well-capitalised the company purchased the land owned by the former coal mining company at Catherine Hill Bay as well as adjacent land, totalling 1200 acres.

Thomas Parton was appointed mine manager and arrived in November 1888. He ordered construction of a new jetty slightly north of the previous jetty, and a new township on a sloping hill west of the jetty (today's Catherine Hill Bay heritage village). The mine manager's grand (compared to the miners' humble cottages) house now known as Wallarah House, was near the top of the hill overlooking both jetty and township.

New pits and a new "town"

The new colliery, initiated by Thomas Parton, was about 2 ½ miles north of the township and a railway was built through the bush and along the beach front to link mine and jetty. A sawmill was established to provide timber for railway sleepers, pit props and buildings.

The first mine was known as "A" Pit, with "B" Pit established nearby in 1893. Another group of houses and shacks was established in the bush near these pits to provide homes for the miners. This village, Mine Camp, remained in use until the 1960s and, along the mine workings and infrastructure, are now derelict. By 1903, however, it had its own postal receiving office, a shop and Methodist Church . In 1904 some 101 residents of Mine Camp signed a petition seeking an addition six pounds a year for the Post Master at Mine Camp.

The township expands

Meanwhile "Main Camp", or Catherine Hill Bay , continued to expand. Both the United Free Methodist Church and the Church of England had applied by 1889 for land on which to build churches and an application was lodged for the establishment of a public school. A large store and a hotel added to the township's services. A wooden cell was erected by the police in 1890 (and remains in the backyard of the former police station)

Within three years demand for the company's coal was increasing at such a rate that Parton increased the size of the township to house more mine workers. Catherine Hill Bay was now truly a company town, its houses available for rent to workers, who could be told leave at a week's notice.

Nevertheless, the settlement was stabilising, as evidenced in 1893 when land was set aside for a cemetery (which is still in use, overlooking the sea at the north end of the Beach, which is known to surfers and locals alike as "Graveyard").

By 1894 the town facilities included four stores, a hotel, two butcheries, a bakery and the post and telegraph office. A new school building was ready for first term in 1895.

By 1903 a brass band, a Friendly Society, School of Arts and Progress Association were in full swing, and in 1906 were joined by a Court of Petty Sessions.

Another mine, another village

Five small mines were opened between 1889 and 1906. "E" Pit, in a dale west of today's Middle Camp village, was worked from the 1890s until the mid-1960s and was the largest and most significant of the Catherine Hill Bay mines.

Its size and long life underwrote the establishment of Middle Camp (the most northerly of Catherine Hill Bay 's two villages). At its peak early in the 20 th century, Middle Camp comprised 82 houses and "batches" (small mostly single room iron and bark dwellings for single - batchelor - miners). Two shops and two tennis courts were supplemented by a new school and a large hall for meetings, "frolics" (dances), wedding receptions, war send off and "welcome home" celebrations. Moving pictures were shown twice a week on pay week and once a week on the "off week". Today the volunteer fire station and a shop occupy the site of the hall.

Change of owners - of the mine and houses

Scarcity and the poor condition of the rented houses was a constant grievance in the mining villages of Catherine Hill Bay . By 1947 there were 763 residents .The miners' homes were still without electricity, bathrooms and running water.

In 1955 J & A Brown Abermain Seaham Collieries Ltd took over the Wallarah Coal Company and began extensive reorganisation and mechanisation of mining operations, concentrating on a new mine entry at Crangan Bay on Lake Macquarie. The modernisation occasioned large scale retrenchments. The Wallarah colliery closed at the end of 1963; the name "Wallarah Colliery" was transferred to the new mine at Crangan Bay.

J & A Brown Abermain Seaham Collieries Limited became a division of Coal & Allied Industries, and that company constructed a large coal receival bin in the headland above the jetty for receival of coal by truck. A 1000 foot long retractable conveyor system was installed on the jetty to transport coal from the bin to shiploader. The railway from "E" Pit (the long-lasting Wallarah Colliery) closed, ending an era in the Bay's coal mining history.

In the mid 1960s Coal & Allied decided to sell its miners' cottages to their occupiers. Changes in transportation meant that most of its workforce by then had chosen to live outside the town.

Around 100 houses in Clarke and Lindsley streets and Flowers Drive were sold with their land. Elsewhere some houses erected by their owners on company-owned land remained but the land on which the houses stood was not subdivided and sold to the occupants. This anomaly persists to the present day.

Due to dwindling enrolments the school closed at the end of 1985 and the post office closed in 1993. The school, schoolmaster's house, post office, RSL hall, police station and both churches are now private residences.

By the early 1990s the colleries were experiencing geological and market difficulties and mining operations were wound back from 2000, with mining and coal washing ceasing in 2002. (Go to "After Coal Mining - what the future holds" for post-mining activities).

The Newcastle Morning Herald's description of Catherine Hill Bay in February 1908 is still true today:

"Favoured by its excellent situation, the sandy nature of the soil, and the fresh breezes which blow from all points of the compass, the bay is a very healthy spot. For children, and for those in need of change and rest, or in search of health, a more ideal spot would be hard to find; and if the place and its attractions in this respect were made known to the public there would be many visitors to the bay."