History and Heritage

Some early history of the Cove

From SMH, 29 June 1918susancWed, 11/01/2012 - 8:59am

North Arm Cove is a quiet little coastal village now but had some dreams been realised it could well have turned into a bustling port city. " The most central spot, where the new city is to be in the Great Port of the New Northern State. "

Port Stephens City 1st Subdivision - sales booklet and price list

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bobreidSun, 01/01/2023 - 9:50pm

Over the past few months I have been researching the history of the North Arm Cove subdivision, and in particular the subdivision designs done by Henry Halloran.

The original design for North Arm Cove was done by Walter Burley Griffin in 1918 for a company called Land Ltd that had bought all of the North Arm Cove area in early 1918. Walter Burley Griffin's design was called Port Stephens City and it was approved by Stroud Council in mid 1918.
In June 1919 Land Ltd became insolvent and was wound up, and Henry Halloran took over the site.

Who owns the non-urban roads?

Private roads in Estate 2janinerSun, 30/10/2022 - 8:10pm
Private roads

Did you know that MidCoast Council does not own many of the roads in the non-urban area?

Most of the roads on the northern and eastern side of the bitumen road leading into North Arm Cove and north of Merriwa are owned by a company called Alathan Pty Ltd. This company also owns the roads north and south of Woolbrook near the old tip. The total land area is 67ha. Presumably most of the non-urban landowners in this area have a right of way for access to their properties.

The private ownership arose when the land was being...

Non-urban land - historical fact sheets

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bobreidSun, 13/02/2022 - 10:44pm

I have been researching the history of the North Arm Cove paper subdivision, including what developers were doing to market the land many years ago, and how they were saying that in the not too distant future the land would be rezoned and landowners would be permitted to build houses on their land.

After complaints from landowners, there were a number of newspaper articles about this, and questions were even raised in the NSW Parliament.

Aboriginal Artefacts

janinerSun, 22/08/2021 - 8:26pm
Aboriginal Site behind Promontory Way

Up on a hill behind Promontory Way there is a sign stating that there are Aboriginal Artefacts on the site. Last week I published an article by Patricia Neal, whose family built a house at the Cove in the 1950’s. Patricia spoke about the site and said that the piles of rocks on the site were actually put there by army personal when they used the area for training in the late 60’s and 70’s. She said that her family had even dug up an army greatcoat from amongst the rocks. It would be interesting to know the views of...

North Arm Cove in 1952

janinerSun, 15/08/2021 - 4:22pm

Nine years ago, Patricia Neal wrote an article in the Newcastle Family History Journal about her memories of her family buying a block of land at North Arm Cove in 1952 and building a holiday home by the water. I have attached a PDF of this article.

In 1952 there were about 30 houses. Access to North Arm Cove from the south was via a ferry at Hexham and a punt at Karuah. There was no nearby Pacific Highway - it went north via The Buckett's Way - and the roads to Karuah and North Arm Cove were rough...

Historical photo #4

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bobreidSun, 17/05/2020 - 10:35pm

This is an interesting photo.

It shows five men standing on the boundaries of lot 871 in Port Stephens City.

The two men in the foreground are standing next to white pegs - these look like boundary pegs, and the two men in the background holding flags were probably also standing next to boundary pegs.

Port Stephens City was designed by Walter Burley Griffin for Henry F Halloran - who was a land developer and was actively marketing blocks of land for sale from about 1918 after the subdivision was approved by Stroud Shire Council.

Historical photo - which beach is this?

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bobreidFri, 17/04/2020 - 9:08pm

When Maureen Kelly left the Cove she kindly left NACCAi with a bag of photos, newspaper clippings and historical information on North Arm Cove.

The following historical black and white photo is one of our beaches. I don't know when it was taken, but it must have been a long time ago since there are no houses in it. Interestingly, the headland had been cleared, apart from a few scattered trees.

Does anyone know which beach this is, and where the photo may have been taken from?

I find these old photos really interesting, especially comparing the past to the present.

North Arm Cove - 100th Birthday!

History
tonyhWed, 11/04/2018 - 12:38pm

Sunday 6 May 1918 is the accepted date for when the Port Stephens waterfront village of North Arm Cove began life as Port Stephens City. The celebrated Canadian Town Planner Walter Burley-Griffin designed this location & presented his plan to the Stroud Shire Council on this date 100 years ago which included a railway line, government administrative area ,a port location, all to be developed around his concept of circular roads surrounding important elements of the City , very much in the same way he had designed our National Capital of Canberra some 5 years or so, earlier ....

The Battle for Baromee

dougkSat, 18/11/2017 - 12:12pm

This is not a story about the army take-over of our peninsular. Those events are however mentioned in the book about our village – which is of course a great gift option for family and friends! Instead, this is a story about the past efforts of the local community to change the name of our village.

The two neighbouring villages to our east, Bundabah and Pindimar, bear names of Aboriginal origin. In 1983, the North Arm Cove community felt that our village too should be known by the Aboriginal name for the area: “Baromee”. But as...

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