When you turn off the Pacific Highway toward Catherine Hill Bay you’ll be heading into a bit of a time warp. Some places are famous for the grandeur and beauty of their historic buildings. Catherine Hill Bay is known for just the opposite reason. Rows of modest coal miner’s cottages and an industrial past are it’s claims to fame – all set in one of the most beautiful land and seascapes of the Wallarah Peninsula in NSW. The heritage listed township is a rare but largely intact example of a coal company development and it contains the oldest group of buildings in Lake Macquarie.
Catho – as it is affectionately known – owes its name to a very nasty storm. The 150th anniversary of that storm was in June. It resulted in one of the most disastrous floods in NSW recorded history, damaging land and property from the Hunter in the north to Moruya in the south and the Macquarie and Murrumbidgee Rivers in the west. The Hawkesbury-Nepean River system flooded to record levels. Over 30 fatalities were associated with the weather event.
It was during that storm that the two-masted wooden topsail schooner Catherine Hill was travelling from the Richmond River to Sydney carrying a full load of timber. On board was a crew of six. Accounts from the ship’s log described the weather as “fearful” and sea “terrific”. Huge waves drove the stricken ship aground on the beach washing two crewmen to their deaths in the process. The other four made it to the beach with terrible injuries where they remained until rescued days later. Catherine Hill was one of ten ships to run into trouble during the storm, but the only one which experienced loss of life.
What we loved
By any measure this is a very beautiful place. The beautiful sandy bay on one side is a favoured haunt of surfers and fishers. Out to sea the coal ships still line up as they wait to enter the Port Waratah coal loader at Newcastle. It’s a picturesque coastal scene with an industrial twist. The setting of the township against the backdrop of largely unchanged bushland was also quite special. We loved the feel of the modest miners cottages. Many have been renovated, but not in a way that detracts from their original character.
What we did in Catherine Hill Bay
Check out the jetty
No trip to Catho is complete without wandering down to take a look at Wallarah Jetty . Its such an icon of the town, the last survivor of Catho’s coal mining industry. It was rebuilt twice during the decades after the first shipment of coal left from there in 1873. It’s survived storms and an attempt to blow it up in 1917. When the coal mine closed for good on 2002, it fell into disuse until the 2013 bushfires again threatened to destroy it. The fire took out the old mine manager’s house and the jetty masters house as well – quite a loss in historical terms. These days the jetty’s future is very uncertain . What an amazing tourist attraction it could become with the right vision. You can walk along the beach and underneath it which gives a good sense of its scale and setting. For safety reasons you cannot access the jetty itself.
Walk the streets
The Catherine Hill Bay conservation precinct includes two little settlements. Middle Camp – which includes the former 1915 public school and a bowling club- and Catherine Hill Bay where the pub is. Neither settlement is big so a wander around the quiet streets and the cottages doesn’t take too long. It’s not difficult to imagine how isolated this spot must once have been for the miners and their families until services like a post office, school, police station and the like eventually appeared (all closed these days of course).
Urban storm
If you walk to southern end of Clarke Street you will come to a new housing subdivision – and to say it has been controversial is an understatement. It took 10 years of court battles and state government wrangling and community protests before it finally gained approval. By the time it’s finished there will be five times the number of homes in Catho – with everything that entails. Will it be better or worse? That remains to be seen – but sleepy little Catho which started with a storm, now faces an a storm of urban development.
Where we ate in Catherine Hill Bay
On a lovely Sunday the place to be was clearly Catho Pub for lunch. While it’s not the original building, a pub has operated from this site almost since the township began. It’s a favoured haunt of motorcyclists apparently and they and their bikes were lined up outside on the day we called in. There’s a large outdoor area at the back which was packed and bands start around 2pm. You can pick up good solid pub food and a cold beverage. Enjoy a drink on the verandah and watch the characters come and go.
