Lake Macquarie

Is Lake Macquarie a lake or a bay?

Ive never heard of it....does google not say?

No one can be bothered to google it, lazy bunch we are.

I have googled it...or a map of it.  It has a seeming inlet north of Caves Beach, but I don't know if it goes through.



Wolf lives on the north end of the lake.  So I was hoping to hear from him.  That's the South Pacific on the right. It looks like a salt water lagoon or bay.

Has something happened?

Technically,  Lake Macquarie is/was a lagoon...

The entry through Swansea Channel allows smaller yachts and trawlers to enter the Lake..
Anyone genuinely and seriously interested in boating, yachting, fishing or watersports activities will be well aware of the area of NSW coastline, from Sydney north past Taree.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=lake+macquarie&oq=lake+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3j69i60l2.4201j0j4&client=tablet-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#dest_bgc=4072A1&dest_mid=/m/01k20m&fpstate=trfpi&trifp=t%3Do

It is listed as the third biggest lake overall in Oz, and is also sometimes considered to be the biggest seaboard/coastal/saltwater  lake in the Southern hemisphere.

It is roughly three times the area of Sydney Harbour, but much more shallow overall (the maximun depth of Lake Macquarie is only 10 metres..)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Macquarie_(New_South_Wales)

Lake Macquarie has its own city council, and is the largest city in the Hunter region by population (with over 210,000 people it has more than 40,000 more than the neighbouring, and more infamous, Newcastle City Council).

https://www.lakemac.com.au/page.aspx?vid=1

Lake Macquarie is the 4th biggest "city" in NSW, while Newcastle is 7th (to claim "second" place, Newcastle tourist and business interests usually lump LMCC, Maitland, Cessnock and Port Stephens together with NCC, as the "Greater Newcastle Region" (aka the 'Lower Hunter')).

the Chanel is man made. and has needed to be dredged a few times. there was a times in my life when you could walk across.

Plus many of the names of water bodies in Australia are named poorly. they are more variable then most of the world (due to lack of snow fed rivers) many of our lakes are only filled with the 'couple of time a century' rains.
Lake Bathurst and lake George near me are examples, They happened to be full when white man first came through the region. Both Tarago and the town of Lake Bathurst were originally planned as major settlements but the lakes just followed it's natural course and shrunk over decades, until the flooding rains filled them up. only to happen again... The Aboriginals of course knew that I believe this is a major part of the their nomadic life style, the need to move with the fresh water.

Because we have a had a wet summer they are quite full almost the highest my neighbor that is 47 and lived in the region his whole life has seen but still only about a 5th the size of what they are on the map, in his fathers generation they did fill up.
My granddad had told me this before when driving down that way as a kid, that the freeway used to be beside the lake, as it is on google maps, now there is a couple of kilometers of dry land between.

Thanks guys. I'm interested in the lake and surroundings.

Lake Macquarie geographically is a permanent coastal saltwater lagoon, with most of its water running down through a serious of permanent and semi-permanent creek systems bringing rainfall from the Watagan "mountains" and Sugarloaf range to the west, and hills north and south. Only around 2 -->> 4% of its water content flows in through Swansea Channel over a year.  Often the water salinity level in the Lake and the more "tidal" creeks can read higher than the seawater out in the ocean. (There are also salt deposits and 'acid sulphate' soils up in the hills, as well as the vegetation, which can all contribute to the lake's overall salinity..).

Early paintings show that there were hundreds of small water inlets out to the ocean along Blacksmiths/12 Mile beaches north of Swansea Channel up to Redhead, but during the later 19th century and early 20th century that area was backfilled with tailings and spoils from sandmining operations..

Then sold onto development companies...
The coastal strip south of Redhead was leased to the BHP mining company for sandmining, and then somehow surreptitiously changed into "freehold" --  meaning that prime coastal land fell into private hands for a relative 'pittance..'

By rights, that whole coastal strip should have been left as a natural National park/conservation area --  and never allowed to fall into private ownership.      

Thanks for the background.  It strikes me, y'all should do what California has done: turn the whole coastline over to the California Coastal Commission, with power and ultimate say on any waterline touching the Pacific Ocean.  They have done wonders in keeping up the place.

https://www.coastal.ca.gov/

Umm we have marine parks that are far better,

The Government of New South Wales established Jervis Bay Marine Park in 1998 and the current zoning plan has been in place since 1 October 2002.
Area: 210 km²

The Jervis Commonwealth Marine Reserve covers approximately 2400 km2 of the continental shelf. It is located approximately 8 nautical miles further offshore from the Jervis Bay Marine Park. For more information visit the Australian Government.

Booderee National Park is also located at Jervis Bay and includes 8.75 km2 of Jervis Bay. Please visit Booderee National Park and the Australian Government Department of Environment for more information.

that's just the one near me, where the National and State gov't have protected land adjacent to each other creating a massive (Over 2600 square km) ecological reserve to protect the unique environment .



and it one of 6 marine parks in NSW alone
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/marine-protected-areas/marine-parks/jervis-bay-marine-park

All are worth a visit their beaches are a fuck tonne better than bondi

There are also Marine Parks north of Newcastle (including one off Port Stephens and the Great Lakes/Tuncurry..);  and a Commonwealth Marine reserve off the Hunter and Central Coasts....

http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/marine/marine-reserves/temperate-east/hunter

So that those  ocean-side parts of the mix are already covered..


It's when you cross over onto land, that too  much of the beachside coastal strip has been put into private ownership.

There are big stretches along the northern beaches of Sydney; along the Central Coast from Long Jetty up to Norah Head; from Pelican past Blacksmiths to Redhead; around Stockton, and near Port Stephens --  that should never have been given away to property developers, but rather should have been kept as conservation areas, with controlled access for fishers, sandminers and forestry concerns --  a 1km to 2 km preservation strip along some of that beachfront would have made life easier all-round..

The same problems also exist up and down the East coast --  like around Kingscliff/Byron/Ballina,  parts of Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie, and down around Batemans Bay.


Instead of having a more advantageous continuous chain of national parks, conservation areas and wildlife reserves along the coast, with ready movement of migratory species,  we have a more broken mixture of good national park stretches, some reserves and forestry areas, a few at-risk beachside communities that will eventually disappear below the waves, and there's still too many areas facing over-development..            

Coastal Commission jurisdiction is not piecemeal in California.  While there is private ownership of beaches and estuaries, it is all governed by the Coastal Commission...every inch, Oregon to Mexico.  Blocking access is strictly prohibited. All planning, zoning, building and restrictions, tangential to the Pacific Ocean, must go through the Coastal Commission.



https://www.coastal.ca.gov/nps/Web/cca_statemap.htm

Occasionally, a private landowner will put up a chain over a driveway to the beach.  Next day, there's a picture in the paper of Coastal Commission police removing it and serving the landowner with an Arrest warrant.

yeah but our 'parks' mean no buildings at all allowed and they are publically owned (maybe a ranger station but that's about it)

doesn't California have any ports? or heavy industry on the coast?
it seems rather dangerous to let anyone access to any strip of coast.
I know in Newcastle there is sections that you cant access with out legit reason (normally employed there) because it is where the coal trains unload for loading at the deep water docks.
it is a place of heavy industry with BIG ships that cant see a little fishing boat anyway. Same with Wollongong, most of the areas that are blocked off are because it is dangerous due to heavy industry.

the marine parks are often inaccessible except via small boat or 4wd(and even then limited access having to stick to defined tracks) they are nature reserves, so the animals welfare comes first, You are not allowed to fish there, take dogs or take anything out or leave anything there.


And keep in mind NSW is a lot bigger than California, most of those approval functions are performed by the local regional councils. which vary depending on the focus on industry, fishing, tourism etc. (tourism is often eco-tourism)

the area around Newcastle (between Port Mac and Sydney) has always been heavy industry with coal and iron mines, steel works and deep water ports. it is currently being urbanized from the south as Sydney grows (plus being priced out of the market) and people are forced to move further away.

AND I think Wolf is complaining about there being building at all there. which has to balanced against the needs of people for homes etc. and A lot of Aussie want to live by the sea.
I'm pretty sure wolf would classify all the Californian coast as 'over developed'

veya wrote:doesn't California have any ports? or heavy industry on the coast?
it seems rather dangerous to let anyone access to any strip of coast.
I know in Newcastle there is sections that you cant access with out legit reason (normally employed there) because it is where the coal trains unload for loading at the deep water docks.
it is a place of heavy industry with BIG ships that cant see a little fishing boat anyway. Same with Wollongong, most of the areas that are blocked off are because it is dangerous due to heavy industry.

As I say, there are CC regulations...some creating exceptions.  Obviously industrial sites have occupational and visitor safety rules...even outright prohibitions.  Also, federal law may preempt state law in some areas, such as seaports.  I know they do with airports.  Finally, some waters are oily and unusable for recreational purposes...I would expect the Port of Oakland or Los Angeles would be a case in point.

But the attempt is to create a general law, not regional parks.  That's not to say that Australia doesn't have as good, or even better protections.