NSWPlanned settlement
Ettalong Beach
A sandy shore at the Bar, sold off in quarter-acre lots for weekend camps.
1907Restwell Estate goes on sale
WHAT STARTED IT
Ettalong faces the entrance to Brisbane Water, where passing ketches once waited for the tide and sailors filled water casks from a hole dug in the sand. The name, recorded in 1830, is thought to mean ‘a place for drinking’.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Arthur Rickard & Co. auctioned the Restwell Estate in 1907, with a jetty and a ferry that met trains at Woy Woy. More estates followed through the 1910s and 1920s, and by 1932 the holiday resort had about 160 permanent residents, a hotel, two guesthouses and a picture theatre.
TURNING POINTS
1907Arthur Rickard & Co. auctions the 250-lot Restwell Estate on 11 November, with a jetty and daily ferry from Woy Woy.
1918An informal post office opens in Arthur Huband’s store on the Restwell Estate.
1922J. W. Browne builds Ettalong Hall, a concrete building housing a cinema.
1925The Hotel Ettalong, begun in 1924, is licensed and opens on the beachfront.
2014The upgraded Ettalong foreshore and playgrounds are officially opened.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential and holiday village on the Peninsula’s inner shore, with shops along Ocean View Road. A ferry crosses Broken Bay to Palm Beach.