Lake Macquarie Coat of Arms

In December 1970, Council's Armorial Bearings were issued by the College of Arms in London

• The main portion of the shield represents the waves of the lake.
• The two-masted schooner on the shield represents the “Martha”, which Captain William Reid commanded when he first sailed into Lake Macquarie in 1800.
• A fish in the top-centre of the shield represents the fishing industry and the city’s marine life.
• On either side of the fish is a black diamond featuring a cross-section of a tree representing the coal and timber industries respectively.
• The base of the shield represents the entrance to Lake Macquarie from the Pacific Ocean, with the surf breaking on the golden sands of the beaches, bordering the fertile green land.
• The iguana (monitor lizard or goanna), which stands on the helmet and wreath, was important to the Awabakal Tribe, the original inhabitants of Lake Macquarie. The liizard holds a Waratah bloom in its mouth. A goanna is any one of several species of lizard of the genus Varanus found in Australia and Southeast Asia. The name 'goanna' is derived from the word 'iguana'. The early european settlers called the monitor lizards 'iguanas' when first arriving in Australia. The word 'iguana' eventually became corrupted into the word 'goanna'.
• A pelican and black swan support the shield on either side. Both these birds are found in Lake Macquarie.
• A cross, usually located on either side of the scroll, represents the earliest settler, Reverend Threlkeld, a Missionary of the London Bible Society.
• The motto - "Respice, Aspice, Perspice" - means "Survey the Past, Examine the Present, Look to the Future".

Note: The cross has been re-located from the scroll to the helmet in this depiction.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License