Kincumber

Kincumber is located at the southern end of the Central Coast adjacent to Macmasters and Avoca beaches and is easily accessed through Gosford from the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway.

Kincumber and surrounds including Saratoga, Davistown, Empire Bay, St Huberts Island, Hardys Bay, Pretty Beach, Wagstaffe, Bouddi National Park and Macmasters Beach is a major holiday destination on the Central Coast.

Attractions

Kincumba Mountain Reserve with a large clearing and picnic area at Honeyman's Rock is one of the major attractions in the Kincumber area. Kincumber Mt Reserve features 700ha of rugged mountainous terrain, populated by a variety of ecospheres, including one of the largest undisturbed rainforests on the Central Coast. The reserve is 200m above sea-level at its high point with picnic-barbecue sites. There are caves, rock formations, palm groves, wildflowers, historic Aboriginal carvings and axe-grinding grooves.

Another impressive attraction in the area is the 1189ha Bouddi National Park. Part of the Sydney Geological Basin it offers fishing, surfing, sunbathing, swimming, excellent bushwalks, panoramic lookouts, and tranquil, secluded bays and beaches. The area is backed by wet sclerophyll forest, grasslands, swamps, heathlands and densely-canopied rainforests. The park is home to gliders, possums, echidnae, bandicoots, bush rats, marsupial mice, owls, scrub turkeys, lyrebirds, bowerbirds, white-breasted sea eagles and a host of other fauna.

There are large and ancient sand dunes (90-100m above sea-level) at Bombi Point and Mourawaring Moors in the northern section of the park, and camping-picnic areas at Little Beach, Putty Beach and Tallow Beach.

Maitland Bay was originally known to Europeans as the Boat Harbour. It was named after the 880-ton paddlesteamer Maitland, seeking shelter in Broken Bay from gale-force winds, became swamped with water from the swells in 1898. It drifted during the night and hit submerged rocks off Bouddi Point.

The ship's boiler and other remnants are accessible by walking around the bay and clambering carefully out on to the slippery rock ledge off Bouddi Point.

Another major drawcard is Daleys Point Aboriginal Site where you can see a rock shelf marked with engravings and a shelter below the outcrop where drawings and stencils can be found.

Macmasters Beach is a popular visitors location, divided off from Bouddi National Park by the steep cliffs of Mourawaring Point. The start of an almost continuous strip of residential coastline, Macmasters requires less effort to get there for those who want an easy day at an everyday beach.

The first two churches on The Central Coast were built at Kincumber. St Paul's Anglican Church was erected between 1841 and 1847 on three acres of the village reserve allotted to the Church of England. In this period churches were funded by public subscription which the government matched dollar for dollar. In the porchway is the gravestone of James Dunlop, the superintendent of the government observatory at Parramatta who discovered a comet in 1833. His grave is in the cemetery, along with those of other white pioneers. This small but genuinely charming church with its ivy-clad walls is located by the roundabout where Avoca Drive and Empire Bay Drive meet.

Also on the grounds is the old Kincumber Orphanage which operated between 1887 and 1976. It is now St Joseph's Conference Centre.

History

Kincumber was one of the earliest settlements on the Central Coast.

Historical Timber-getters and boat builders were the first to settle the Kincumber-Macmasters-Avoca region from the early 1820s, and boats from tinnies to stately ocean-going yachts and luxury cruisers are still very much part of the lifestyle.

The name ‘Kincumber’ comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'towards the rising sun'.

The Darkinjung (Central Coast) region is home to the Darkinyung Aboriginal nation. The Darkinjung Aboriginal community is diverse and inclusive. The Darkinjung region is bound by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Hawkesbury River to the south, the Watagan Mountains to the west and the southern end of Lake Macquarie to the north. It has one of the highest densities of culturally significant sites in Australia, with over 7,000 registered sites.

Governor Phillip and a party of officers and seamen entered Broken Bay in a whaleboat in 1788, about a month after establishing the settlement at Sydney Cove. They passed Lion Island at the mouth of Brisbane Water and sheltered from heavy rains behind the rocky headland of Green Point. Phillip observed 'the land is much higher than at Port Jackson, more rocky and equally covered with timber; large trees which grow on the summits of mountains'.

The first white settlers were drawn by the possibilities of exploiting the local supplies of cedar, forest oak, blue gum and other hardwoods. Boat building also began at this time and continued until World War I. Small settlers took up land on the ocean shores, growing maize, onions, potatoes and hay. Others gathered cockle shells which were loaded on to ketches and sent off for lime-burning.

By the early 1830s the number of European settlers in the area was sufficient to warrant the reservation of land for the village of Kincumber.