SUNDAY SYDNEY SUBURBS, continued

COASTERS RETREAT

(To be honest, until I came across it for this series, I had never heard of it).

Location:

Coasters Retreat is an offshore suburb in northern Sydney, in the State of New South Wales, 42 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council.

Name origin:

The Basin is a naturally enclosed lagoon with a very narrow mouth, which at times allowed the entrance of vessels. The water used to be deeper but it has silted up and the entrance has been closed with a net since 1972. 

Coaster’s Retreat is so named because coastal trading ships used to wait here to sit out storms and to gather in convoys to sail to Sydney.

About:

Coasters Retreat is in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, on the western shores of Pittwater looking northward toward the Basin. 

Coasters is made up of fifty holiday houses set in the bush and beside the beach. Two of them date from settlement in 1922-1924.

Coasters Retreat has no road or land access and is entirely dependent on transport via the Palm Beach Ferry Service. Coasters Retreat is serviced by two wharves, and a rural fire brigade.

The area was first inhabited by Indigenous Australians, the Kuringgai (also spelt Ku-ring-gai, Kuring-gai, Guringai). The Kuringai were hunters and gatherers.

In 1770 Captain Cook, sighted Broken Bay, naming it for its rugged terrain. Pittwater was first explored by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788, who named Pittwater after British Prime Minister William Pitt. Pittwater was again charted in 1789 by Captain John Hunter. In 1842 Coasters Retreat was first granted to a former soldier of the NSW Army Corps by Governor Gipps, who gave his name to "Soldiers Point" on the western extremity of the south headland, with agriculture beginning on a small scale. A farmhouse was built at The Basin in 1881.

Coasters Retreat became enclosed by national park following the establishment of the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park in 1896. In 1914 Bonnie Doon Wharf was built by the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park to provide access for campers and visitors.

The area underwent subtle growth during the 20th century with the construction of holiday houses. After the Coasters Retreat Progress Association succeeded in connecting to the electricity supply in 1967, the Association became dedicated to the preservation of the unique coastal environment at Coasters Retreat. Electricity lines were hidden underground, road building was not initiated, fences not allowed, and communal postal services maintained in order to promote a tranquil non-suburban environment.

Fun Fact:

It was a pirate and bushranger hideaway area.

Gallery:

Coasters Retreat photographed from The Basin

There are no roads at Coasters Retreat