Joseph Henry Lancaster, Catherine Hill Bay, 1875.

This article is about JH Lancaster activity’s at the time, his name is miss- spelt Lankaster.

1875 The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW: 1843 - 1893) Thursday 2 September

Catherine Hill Bay.

(From a Correspondent of the Newcastle Chronicle.)

The following is a condensed account of the information which I spoke to you about, I was unable to send it to you before. The particulars, I have no doubt, you will find very interesting. 

The tract of land bordering Wyee Creek, is known as Wyee.

Lancaster's steam saw mill is situated at that place, about nine miles southerly from Coorumbung, and about five miles from the wharf on Lake Macquarie (as per plan of district). 

The proprietors of the mill are constructing a tramway from the mill to the intersection of the wharf-road with the Coorumbung and Gosford road, a distance of one and a half miles.

By this means, very boggy flats are avoided; from thence to the wharf, the road is hard, and follows the ridge. The tramway which is constructed of wooden sleepers and wooden rails, will be completed in about a month.

The mill has been erected purposely for the sawing of railway sleepers for Mr. Wakeford, contractor, Murrurundi, for railway extension north- Ward. Lancaster has the contract for 100,000 railway sleepers.

Building timber is also cut out of what would be wasted from the logs after the sleepers are cut.

Lancaster employs three horse and seven bullock teams to draw the logs and convey same to the wharf. 

The mill is on a section block of 640 acres adjoining Walker's 1100 acres. The dimensions of the shed are 100 x 40 feet. There are three circular saws worked by steam, in use at the mill, each making 800 revolutions per minute. The engine is 30 horse-power, nominal. The motion is convened to the machinery by means of a spur-wheel and pinion, 9 feet in diameter, and fly-wheel 14 feet in diameter.

The whole of the machinery is of the best description.

The timbers are so constructed that there is no perceptible vibration in the mill. 

Mr. Lankaster cuts on an average, 30,000 feet of timber per week.

A steamboat has been built, with a capacity of 100tons, to take the timber to the Lake Heads, so that the vessels may be more readily and easily loaded.

The vessels might take in a good cargo at the wharf, but the Pelican Point Flats are so shallow and the channel so narrow, that a vessel may have to unload half its cargo into punts to get across.

There is only six feet of water there, the channel being in places not wider than a vessel's length. The flats at Pelican Point must not be mistaken for the bar at the Lake Heads, they being about five miles from the Heads..

There's a kind of river connecting the Lake with the ocean, about four miles long, and it is near the entrance to the Lake that the flats are situated. It would not take much money for the Government to place a dredge at this place.

These flats are a great obstruction to trade, and the Administration ought to do something to militate against the evil; a dredge would answer all the purposes. You must not confound the Lake entrance at the sea; small vessels can get through that easily enough.

Mr. Lankaster employs twenty-five men at the mill, and there are about thirty children there needing instruction. Mr. Lambert states that he would build a school-room if a teacher was sent there, which would be considered a great boon.

It is the intention of the Church of England to hold services every month at Lankaster's, that gentleman having desired that Divine service should be held there.

The Church of England parish of Wickham, under the Rev. Mr. Dixon, takes in the Lake Heads, Catherine Hill Bay (New Wallsend), Cabbage Tree, Coorumbung, Newport, Wyee, &c, involving a journey of more than 150 miles ; the minister, setting out from Newcastle via Burwood, Williamson's, &c, and returning via Coorumbung, Teralba, and   Wallsend, thus making the entire circuit of Lake Macquarie.

The whole of this large district is making rapid strides in progress; on every hand industries are opening up, and numerous families settling down at different locations. At New Wallsend (Catherine Hill Bay), the coal is the best in the colony, and the pits are working favourably; the township will soon vie with any coal town in New South Wales.

The scenery is magnificent at Catherine Hill Bay; the country and the ocean is something grand. 

Property here may not be worth much now, but the richest men in the colonies have made their fortunes in possessing property primitively in less important places than New Wallsend and the district.

There are two other steam saw-mills in this important district - Messrs. King and Henry's, at Coorumbung ; and Mr. Moon's, six miles towards Teralba, several others are in course of erection.

The road between Coorumbung and Catherine Hill Bay is sadly needed in wet weather. The mail is taken to Catherine Hill Bay twice a week, but very irregularly. This is in consequence of the Government not even "logging the holy ground" and fixing the crossing places.

The road is full of holes in some places - even the high road going to New Wallsend - the holes are that large that they would take a horse and rider completely out of sight. In the winter time, it is still more frightful. 

The Government, if they thought of advancing the interests of a rising and prominent section of this colony, would at once place upon the estimates a sum for the making of a road from Coorumbung to Catherine Hill Bay.