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First Jetty at Catherine Hill Bay
Photo Ref: 25426
Pile jetty built into the face of workingsclose to the water's edge at the southern end of Catherine Hill Bay. Built by New Wallsend Coal Company in 1873.Evidence of the location is still clearly visible. The ship berthed at the first jetty was a regular steam collier called the Susannah Cuthbert . This was the only ship belonging to the New Wallsend Mining Company. In the pre-dawn darkness of the 6th July 1875, carrying a full cargo of coal, she ran aground on Long Reef en route to Sydney. As darkness lifted there was a fog and the steamer followed the path set by the compass “Careless placing of an iron scraper near the binnacle went unnoticed so that the magnetizes needle obeyed the metal’s conducive power and the reef came forward out of the fog, was under their bow before the helmsman could shout a warning.” The ship quickly ran aground in 7 feet of water as the men swam to the safety of shore 50 yards away. The loss contributed to the demise of the coal company.
This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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