The Marina Precinct is a unique maritime experience. It’s a state-of-the-art port of call for yachties who enjoy the facilities while the tall masts of their vessels sway at their moorings at the Marina, headquarters to the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club and the award-winning Rocksalt restaurant and Mangrove Jacks. Also featuring a ship chandler, yacht broker, café and beauty clinic, the Marina Precinct is also the place to head for the freshest of fresh seafood from the Fishermans Co-op as well as piping hot fish’n’chips for a lazy picnic on the waterfront.

Back in Time

From School Corner to the Bridge

The location of the Marina Precinct at the western end of the harbour and close to the Maitland Road ensured that it would be attractive to industry and commerce. Its frontages to the water allowed easy import and export and for land transport it had the Great Northern Railway and the main road to the interior of the Hunter Valley.

Manufacturing developed in the 1850s with the processing of meat and tallow but then expanded into engineering and saw milling. The Hudson Brothers’ Railway Rolling Stock Works was a major employer and its successor of the Foundry Street site, the firm established by the Goninan Brothers, went on to outstanding success though it moved away from Wickham in 1919. In the current century, light industry has maintained the traditions of the early saw-millers and cordial makers of Throsby Creek.

The position of Marina Precinct made it ‘an extension of Newcastle West’ and allowed it to enjoy ‘the privileges of the city to a large extent’. Thus stores and hotels concentrated at the southern end of Hannell Street where trams, roads and railways brought customers from the north, south and west.

Source: summary from Honeysuckle Historical study by Dr J W Turner, 1994.