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(extract from Community Profile)

Cape Hawke and Port Stephens were originally named by Captain James Cook when he sailed along the coastline in 1770.

In 1816 permission was granted for cedar to be removed from the Great Lakes district. The cedar cutters, mostly assigned convicts, moved along the waterways in the early 1800's but made no attempt at settlement.

The first settlements occurred as a result of the formation of the Australian Agricultural Company in London in 1824. This Company, with John Macarthur as a Director, was granted the option of selecting one million acres of land in New South Wales. Based on reports from John Oxley's 1818 expedition, the Company selected half a million acres from the northern shore of Port Stephens to the Manning River, which was the northern most limit of travel at the time, inland to Gloucester and down the Karuah River. All of the Great Lakes district was therefore included in this first land grant.

In 1826 the Company had two boatloads of settlers arrive from England. It set up headquarters at Carrington, on Port Stephens, and a sheep and farm outpost at Stroud in 1827. Stroud was originally named by Robert Dawson, the Company's first Superintendent, because of its striking resemblance to the countryside of Stroud in England.

In the early years the Company tried to establish a pastoral economy, using an itinerant male workface and convict labour. When it was found that sheep were not suited to coastal conditions, a variety of other pastoral and agricultural experiments were attempted, but many failed. However, dairying, beef cattle, mixed vegetable farming, poultry raising and pig farming were all successful.

In 1830 Henry Dangar, the Assistant Government Surveyor, explored and surveyed the Company's land for its potentialities. As a result of his report, all of the country east of a line from Mt George on the Manning to The Branch south of Stroud, as well as the coastal strip bordering the lower Myall River to Hawks Nest, was found to be unsuitable for pastoral and agricultural pursuits and was surrendered to the Crown in 1832 in exchange for prime grazing land on the Peel River in the Tamworth district.

Stroud was a self-contained village by 1832 and, as early as 1836, the Company's storehouses and much of the convict labour force were located there. By 1850, it had become the Company's headquarters. Land was subdivided for private settlement in 1849, with settlers arriving from England the following year to take up land grants there. However, the village received a severe blow to its expanding prosperity when the Company moved its headquarters to Newcastle in 1856. Its last links with the district were severed when Surveyor Ogden left in 1873.

Following the Company's surrender of the Myall Lakes and coastal areas, small settlements started to appear at a number of locations. Timber-getting brought the early settlers into the district via the inland river system and chain of lakes. This was closely followed by timber industries, boat building, farming, fishing and mining.

When it was found that sheep were not suited to coastal conditions, a variety of other pastoral and agricultural experiments were attempted, but many failed. However, dairying, beef cattle, mixed vegetable farming, poultry raising and pig farming were all successful.

Land grants were slow to be taken up initially because land had to be surveyed before it could be selected. It was only after Sir John Robertson's Land Act in 1861 permitting free selection before survey that settlement began in earnest. As settlements grew, stores, churches and schools were built.

The first land grant in Myall River Settlement, the original name for Bulahdelah, occurred in 1840. Bulahdelah, meaning "meeting of the waters", became the settlement's official name in 1877 and was proclaimed a village in 1886.

Originally the area around Wallis Lake and the Wallamba and Wang Wauk Rivers was known as Cape Hawke Settlement and Nabiac was called Wollomba, meaning "flying fox". The first land grant in the area occurred in 1855. Wollomba was proclaimed a village in 1890 and officially re-named Nabiac, meaning "wild fig tree", in 1906.

Forster's first land grant was in 1856. Its original name of Minimbah, meaning "home of teacher", was changed to Forster by the Lands Department in 1870 after William Forster, who was Secretary for Lands. The settlement was proclaimed a village in 1885.

The first land grant in Tuncurry occurred in 1875. The settlement, originally called North Shore and then North Forster, was re-named Tuncurry, meaning "plenty of fish", in 1891 and proclaimed a village in 1893. A bridge was built linking Forster and Tuncurry in 1959, replacing the punt service that had operated since 1890.

Since the 1950's Forster and Tuncurry have experienced rapid growth from tourism, outstripping other population centres in the Great Lakes district. Because of this expansion, Great Lakes Shire Council (created in 1906 as Stroud Shire Council and re-named in 1971) relocated its headquarters from Stroud to Forster in 1980. The Shire boundaries were altered in 1981 to include Tuncurry and Nabiac which were previously part of the Manning Shire.

The first land grant in the Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest area occurred in 1865 at Hawks Nest. This settlement was named after a large tree which was a favourite nesting place for hawks and used as a navigational marker.

Tea Gardens, originally called The Tea Gardens, was part of the Australian Agricultural Company's grant until its departure in 1856. The origin of the village's name is uncertain, but it is possible that it was named after the Company's unsuccessful attempts to grow tea there or after the many tea trees in the area.

The population in Tea Gardens and particularly Hawks Nest dropped in the late 1880's when the timber industry declined. This resulted in the transfer of services from Hawks Nest to Tea Gardens. An urban area for Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest was gazetted in 1921 and a punt service between the two villages commenced in 1928. It wasn't until sand mining came to the area in the 1960's that Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest began to prosper and grow. Tourist roads were constructed and, in 1974, the Singing Bridge replaced the punt service.

Over the years some grandiose plans to develop Port Stephens for overseas shipment were proposed. For example, North Arm Cove was nominated as a possible site for the national capital, but lost out to the "Yass-Canberra" region in 1909. Then in 1918 several plans for the establishment of cities at Pindimar and North Arm Cove, with a rail connection to the North Coast Railway at Stroud Road, were formulated. However, none of these eventuated because the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works decided in 1924 that it would not be economically viable to establish two shipping ports in such close proximity and to concentrate on only developing the Port of Newcastle.

By the turn of the century, much of the Great Lakes district was occupied and the communities we know today were established.

Shirley Barron, editor of "NOTA" ("News of the Area").

Jean Onley, Bulahdelah historian.

Jan Winn, Hawks Nest/Tea Gardens historian.

Bulahdelah Central School Centenary 1868-1968 - Bulahdelah Central School, 1968.

The History of Nabiac and District - L.A. Gilbert, 1954.

Lakeland Adventure: A History of the Early Days of Forster/Tuncurry - ed. Marjorie Debert, 1963.

Myall Lakes: Creation to Controversy - H.K. Garland and Joy Wheeler, 1982.

Stroud and District: Sesqui Centenary 1826-1976 - Stroud and District Historical Society, 1976.

Stroud and the A.A. Co. - John Chadban, 1970.

Tea Gardens-Hawks Nest Centenary of Education - 1977.

Written by Narelle Marr, 1993 with assistance from John Chadban

Last Updated  19 December 2003