Lake Macquarie History

Chaldene - Highfields

Chaldene was the name of a bus stop on the Pacific Highway "where the highway climbs from Adamstown South to Highfields" in the vicinity of the rifle range.

The Chaldene stop took its name from a nearby house owned by the Maynard family. The house took it’s name from a racehorse.

It was named in 1939 when the bus stop was established. It was the custom to name the first stop along the highway after leaving Newcastle for the purposes of the old bus signs eg. Newcastle to Swansea, first stop Chaldene.

Many people, impressed by the sign on the buses, thought Chaldene was a suburb and the locality became known by that name for a period.

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