Lake Macquarie: Australia's Largest Coastal Saltwater Lake

Lake Macquarie, the large saltwater coastal lake south of Newcastle that at 110 square kilometres is the largest coastal saltwater lake in Australia, provides the waterfront lifestyle and the recreational waterway that the communities of the Lake Macquarie council area use for the sailing, the fishing, the kayaking, and the waterfront living that the lake's calm water and the 174 kilometres of foreshore make possible. The lake's combination of the calm water that the coastal lake's isolation from the open ocean provides and the marine biodiversity that the tidal connection to the sea sustains, creates the recreational waterway that the regional population values for the water-based lifestyle that the lake enables throughout the year.

The sailing culture of Lake Macquarie, sustained by the multiple sailing clubs that operate from the lake's foreshore and the consistent afternoon sea breeze that the coastal geography delivers to the lake, provides the training environment and the racing program that the lake has used to produce competitive sailors at the national level. The lake's protected water makes it the ideal training venue for the junior sailing programs that the clubs run and the gateway through which the recreational sailor develops the skills and the confidence that the ocean sailing requires.

The waterfront communities of Lake Macquarie, including the established foreshore towns of Toronto, Belmont, and the Swansea narrows community at the lake's ocean entrance, provide the residential character of the lake that the waterfront properties and the water access that they provide have created over generations of settlement. The affordability of the Lake Macquarie waterfront relative to the Sydney equivalents that the national property market comparison reveals has attracted the migration from Sydney that the lake's lifestyle proposition creates and that the transport connections to Newcastle and Sydney sustain for the commuter who can manage the distance.

The environmental management of Lake Macquarie, including the water quality monitoring, the native vegetation restoration on the foreshore, and the management of the boat traffic and the waterway uses that the lake's ecological health requires, provides the environmental stewardship that the Lake Macquarie City Council and the NSW Department of Planning and Environment coordinate. The lake's sensitivity to the nutrient loading from the surrounding urban catchment and the agricultural land that contributes to the stormwater inflow creates the water quality management challenge that the foreshore communities and the fishing and recreational users depend on the management agencies to address.

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