NSWRail & telegraph
Tuggerah
A station for the lakes became a Central Coast shopping hub.
1890Tuggerah Lakes station opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Tuggerah grew around a platform on the Main Northern line, opened in 1890 as Tuggerah Lakes. A sawmill and farms grew up nearby, and fishermen used the station to send fish caught on the lake to Sydney by night train.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Fishermen asked for a lake jetty from 1892, and in 1901 a stone jetty was built on Tuggerah Lake to speed the despatch of fish to the station. The area stayed semi-rural until Westfield Tuggerah opened on a once-vacant paddock in 1995 and set off business-park development around it.
TURNING POINTS
1890The railway station opens as Tuggerah Lakes.
1892Tuggerah gets a public school, and a postal receiving office opens at the platform on 12 December.
1901A stone jetty on Tuggerah Lake speeds the despatch of fish to the station.
1911The station takes the name Tuggerah for good, to complaints that dropping ‘Lakes’ will cost tourist trade.
1995Westfield Tuggerah opens on 19 October.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A major commercial hub with Westfield Tuggerah, a business park and light industry beside a small residential suburb.