NSWMining
Mannering Park
A family estate on the lake became a power-station suburb.
1963Vales Point power station starts generating
WHAT STARTED IT
Mannering Park is on the Vales Point headland at the southern end of Lake Macquarie, between Chain Valley Bay and Wyee Bay. The Vale family, who named it after Mannering Creek, held and subdivided the land from the 1910s, but the suburb grew after the state built Vales Point Power Station beside local coal and lake water for cooling.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Edward Garth’s family settled on the point in 1876 and cured fish there, and an 1890 subdivision failed to sell. Vales Point, the first major NSW power station sited at its coal source, led to new collieries nearby, and its B station made it Australia’s largest power station in 1978.
TURNING POINTS
1963The first two generating units at Vales Point Power Station are completed.
1966A fourth unit brings the A station to 875 MW, then the highest capacity in NSW.
1978Two 660 MW units are added, making Vales Point Australia’s largest power station.
1989The original A station is decommissioned.
2015The NSW Government sells Delta Electricity, owner of Vales Point, to Sunset Power.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A quiet lakeside suburb of about 2,500 people with a sailing club, a long foreshore reserve and local shops, still beside the operating Vales Point Power Station.