LAKE Macquarie is geomorphologically not a lake. The water body is an open lagoon, the largest lagoon in Australia. Its tidal surge has always cleaned out the sand build-up in the channel ('Channel a crazy situation', Newcastle Herald, 1/2).
Despite this tidal scouring, the lagoon's entrance has always been shallow, sandy and unsuitable for larger boats and yachts with deep keels. Colonial history reveals that shallow draught boats were required to move coal across the lake from Coal Point and through the Swansea Channel. When these boats reached Moon Island in the open sea, on calmer days, the coal was transferred to larger sea-going colliers that were moored there. The coal was then transported to Sydney.
