NSWPort & river
The Entrance
A lake mouth that became a guest house town.
1900Bayview Guest House opens
WHAT STARTED IT
The town sits on a point bounded by water on three sides, where Tuggerah Lake drains to the ocean through a narrow channel. Karagi, the Aboriginal name for the channel, was used for the settlement into the 1910s, and the lake and channel drew fishermen and holidaymakers.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Henry Holden took up land at Picnic Point in 1828, and the Taylor family held land here from 1850 until it was divided among their children around 1900. Guest houses followed the 1889 railway, with visitors crossing the lake by launch from Wyong, and by 1920 lots in the Tuggerah Entrance Estate were selling at auction in Sydney.
TURNING POINTS
1900The Denings open Bayview Guest House, the first in The Entrance.
1912Tenders are called for a telephone line from Wamberal to Karagi, as the settlement was still known.
1920Lots in the Tuggerah Entrance Estate sell at auction in Sydney.
1934A timber bridge 1,200 feet long, with passing bays, opens across the channel on 15 December.
1968The present two-lane concrete bridge opens to traffic.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A holiday and retirement town of about 4,200 people at the mouth of Tuggerah Lake. Its beaches, channel bridge and town centre are still organised around visitors.