NSWPort & river
Swansea (NSW)
Pelican Flats grew where Lake Macquarie meets the sea.
1880sLake entrance works
WHAT STARTED IT
Swansea sits on the narrow channel joining Lake Macquarie to the ocean, the entrance Captain William Reid sailed into by mistake in 1800. Threlkeld set up a depot at the lake heads in 1842 to ship coal barged from his Ebenezer mine, and the town became the base for workers improving the entrance and building its breakwaters.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Settlers arrived from the 1850s, when Chinese settlers helped start a fishing industry, and a post office opened at Pelican Flats in 1879. In 1887 a public meeting renamed the growing settlement Swansea, and successive bridges were built across the channel.
TURNING POINTS
1800Captain William Reid loads coal inside the entrance, mistaking the lake for the Hunter River.
1842Threlkeld establishes a coal depot at the lake heads.
1879Pelican Flats post office opens on 1 December, as harbour improvement works begin.
1887A public meeting on 7 October renames Pelican Flats as Swansea.
1955A new bridge across the channel opens on 14 December.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A lakeside town at the southern edge of Greater Newcastle, on the Pacific Highway beside the channel. Boating, fishing and holidays have replaced coal loading.