Raffertys Real Estate - Cams Wharf

HISTORY OF CAMS WHARF The Aboriginal People that lived around the Lake Macquarie area belonged to the Awabakal Nation.  At that point in time the bay was known as "Galgabba Creek" which means "a good place to rest".  The Awabakal People were often seen by early settlers fishing the lake from bark canoes.  The lake was first discovered by Europeans in 1800 when Captain Reid accidentally sailed into the lake thinking it was the Hunter River at Newcastle.  The site that Rafferty's now occupies was originally a cattle farm and then developed as Chinese Gardens and Fruit Orchards.  John Taaffe, one of the original settlers in this district obtained the original land grant and in 1885, his descendants held the land until Rafferty's purchase in 1987.  This area was renamed Cams Wharf in the last century after a doctor (Dr. Cam) who lived in the bay and attended emergencies at settlements around the lake.  In the late 1880's there were two steam ships operating on the lake that brought a steady stream of people through Cams Wharf.  The SS Pinafore and SS Maggie Johnson catered for the newly re-established mining settlement at Catherine Hill Bay.  The steamer service provided employment for retrenched workers from Wallsend and Minmi districts who wished to obtain work at Catherine Hill Bay. These men travelled to the mine on Sunday evening and returned home on Friday evening.  Cams Wharf was the ferry port and the men then travelled by foot to the pit head at Catherine Hill Bay.  The provisions for the mine settlement were also taken to Cams Wharf and loaded onto Bullock Wagons and then transported to the mine.  On the weekend the steam ships brought families across the lake for a day of pleasure.