NSWPlanned settlement
Empire Bay
Sold as Sorrento, renamed Empire Bay when it asked for a post office.
1905Sorrento Estate subdivided
WHAT STARTED IT
The village lines the shore of Cockle Creek, where early Brisbane Water settlers gathered shells for lime, cut timber and built boats. With no road, ferries from Woy Woy station made it reachable for holidaymakers once the railway opened.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Arthur Rickard & Co. subdivided the 152-acre Sorrento Estate in 1905–06, and William Huggart’s Sorrento House boarding house opened in 1907. In 1908 residents, including boarding-house keepers, fern gatherers and boat builders, asked for a post office, and the name changed to Empire Bay because Victoria already had a Sorrento.
TURNING POINTS
1905Arthur Rickard & Co. advertises the Sorrento Estate as a health and pleasure resort.
1907Sorrento House boarding house is completed, served by ferries from Woy Woy.
1908The locality is renamed Empire Bay and gains a postal receiving office.
1912C. C. Swinbourne moves the post office to his new general store.
1934The 80-ton Erina II, hand-built from local timber, is launched at Empire Bay.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A waterside residential suburb across Cockle Channel from Davistown. Buses run to Woy Woy and Erina, and a ferry calls on the way to Woy Woy via Davistown and Saratoga.