Page 179 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Australia

THE BL UE MOUNT AINS AND BEY OND  177

the waterfront. The show also promenade areas and
provides visitors with an outdoor cafés. On the
entertaining and educational southern side of the
commentary about the area’s harbour, Nobbys
pelicans, birds and marine life. Lighthouse sits at the
end of a long causeway;
O Forest of Tranquility – the vista back over old
Australian Rainforest Sanctuary Newcastle makes the
Ourimbah Creek Rd, Ourimbah. brief walk worthwhile.
Tel (02) 4362 1855. Open 10am–4pm Further on lies Fort
Sat & Sun (last adm 2pm). Closed 25 Scratchley, built originally
Dec. & 7 limited. ∑ forestof to repel the coal-seeking
tranquility.com Russians in the 1880s.
O Australian Reptile Park Despite constant
Pacific Hwy, Somersby. Tel (02) 4340 surveillance, the fort did
1022. Open 9am–5pm daily. Closed 25 not open fire until the
Dec. & 7 ∑ reptilepark.com.au 1940s, when the Japanese
shelled Newcastle during
Environs World War II. Good surfing
There are several national parks beaches lie on either side
within a short distance of Italianate post office in Newcastle of the harbour’s entrance.
Gosford. Bouddi National Park is
one of the most diverse reserves Classical; the Court Chambers E Newcastle Region Art Gallery
in the state, with sandstone are High Victorian; the post Cnr Darby & Laman sts. Tel (02) 4974
cliffs, secluded beaches and office was modelled on 5100. Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sun.
coastal heaths blanketed in Palladio’s Basilica in Venice Closed 25 Dec, Good Fri.
wildflowers. Also worth a visit is and the town’s cathedral, ∑ nag.org.au
the Bulgandry Aboriginal site in Christ Church, is an elaborate P Fort Scratchley
Brisbane Waters National Park, and impressive example of Nobbys Rd. Tel (02) 4974 2027. Open
which has rock engravings of Victorian Gothic. 10am–4pm Wed–Mon (last tour
human and animal figures The modern Newcastle 2:30pm). Closed Good Fri, 25 Dec. 8
dating back thousands of years. Region Art Gallery houses paid. 7 ∑ fortscratchley.com.au
works by some of the country’s
most prominent 19th- and Environs
4Newcastle 20th-century artists, including Four times the size of Sydney
the Newcastle-born William Harbour (see pp78–107), Lake
* 140,000. ~ £ @ @
∑ visitnewcastle.com.au Dobell, Arthur Boyd and Macquarie lies 20 km (12 miles)
Brett Whiteley (see pp38–9). south of Newcastle. The lake’s
One visitor to Newcastle, Queens Wharf is the main vast size facilitates nearly every
Australia’s second-oldest city, attraction of the harbour fore- kind of watersport imaginable.
remarked in the 1880s: “To my shore. It was redeveloped On the western shore, at Wangi
mind the whole town appeared during the 1980s as part of Wangi, is Dobell House, once
to have woke up in fright at our a bicentennial project. There home to the renowned local
arrival and to have no definite are splendid views from its artist, William Dobell.
ideas of a rendezvous whereat
to rally.” The chaos to which he Francis Greenway, Convict Architect
referred was largely the result
of the city’s reliance on coal Australian $10 notes once bore the portrait of
mining and vast steel works. the early colonial architect Francis Greenway.
Building progressed with no This was the only currency in the world to pay
planning as profits rose. tribute to a convicted forger. Greenway was
Today this chaos only adds transported from England to Sydney in 1814
to Newcastle’s charm. The city to serve a 14-year sentence for his crime.
curls loosely around a splendid Under the patronage of Governor Lachlan
harbour and its main streets rise Macquarie, who appointed him Civil
randomly up the surrounding Architect in 1816, Greenway designed more
than 40 buildings, of which 11 still survive
hills. Industry is still the today. He received a full King’s Pardon in
mainstay, but this does not 1819, but soon fell out of favour because
detract from the city’s quaint he charged exorbitant fees for his
beauty. The main thoroughfare architectural designs while still on
of Hunter Street has many a government salary. Greenway
buildings of diverse architectural eventually died in poverty in 1837. Francis Greenway (1777–1837)
styles. The Courthouse follows
a style known as Late Free