NSWPlanned settlement
Speers Point
A lakeside picnic ground became the seat of Lake Macquarie’s council.
1915Shire council moves to Speers Point
WHAT STARTED IT
William Brooks’s 1828 selection ran down the eastern bank of Cockle Creek to the lake, and from 1843 his Lochend Colliery sent coal by trolley line to a jetty at the point. Sydney businessman William Speer bought part of the estate in 1870, and his name stuck to the point.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The lakeside park drew miners’ families for Eight Hour Day picnics and regattas, and the first township subdivision followed in 1902. When the Speers Point Land Company gave six allotments for shire chambers at the end of 1910, the council accepted them as the most central site in the shire, and it was meeting there by 1915.
TURNING POINTS
1915Lake Macquarie Shire Council meets at its new chambers on Main Road, Speers Point.
1916Speers Point post office opens on 2 October.
1928A footbridge replaces the rowing-boat ferry across Cockle Creek.
1955The council moves to new offices on the corner of Main Road and Park Road.
1977The present administration centre is first occupied, with a second stage in 1979.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A lakeside suburb of about 3,400 people, still home to Lake Macquarie City Council’s administration centre beside Speers Point Park.