Map - Kahibah, New South Wales (Kahibah)

Kahibah (Kahibah)
Kahibah is a suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie, Greater Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, located 9 km from Newcastle's central business district.

Kahibah is the closest suburb to Glenrock Lagoon, and is drained by Flaggy and Little Flaggy creeks which flow into Glenrock Lagoon 2 km to the east. The suburb's name is from the Aboriginal name word "Ky-yee-bah", which meant either a place for games or to be active and eager. The local Aboriginal people, the Awabakal people, had camps in the area of Glenrock Lagoon, and named the area "Pillapay-Kullaitaran", meaning "Valley of the palms".

In a letter dated 12 October 1842, to W. Kirchner of Sydney, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt describes a walk through the valley on his way from Newcastle to Redhead via Charlestown. On this walk he described the view of the lagoon from a high vantage point. That vantage point is today known as "Leichhardt Lookout", which is on the Great North Walk.

The township of Kahibah was gazetted on 27 February 1894. This township is not to be confused with a proposed village "Kahibah" approved by the Surveyor-General Office in 1865 which was to be located on the northern side of the entrance of Lake Macquarie where the suburbs of Pelican and Blacksmiths now exist.

In 1880 a coal rail line was built to Redhead with the line being extended to Belmont in 1916. A station was built at Kahibah. On 8 April 1971 at 1710 the last rail passenger train to Belmont via Kahibah left Newcastle Station with the rail line closing to all coal traffic on 21 December 1992. Since then the line has been redeveloped to a cycleway called "The Fernleigh Track". The first section from Adamstown to Kahibah was opened on 2 February 2003. The second stage, Kahibah to Whitebridge was opened on 7 May 2005.

On 21 October 1922 the Memorial Hall was opened in Hexham Street. It has also been known as the "Soldiers' Memorial Hall". Within the hall were two honour rolls of men and women that went to World War I and World War 2. These honour rolls now reside in the Kahibah Public School Memorial Hall. Over the life of the hall it served as a school, picture theatre, library, play group (last meeting December 1995). The hall was demolished in 1996 to make way for home units.

In 1938 a school was established, in the Memorial Hall but it was not until 20 October 1954 that Kahibah Public School was moved to its current location.

The Great North Walk passes Kahibah on its way from Newcastle to Sydney. Each section of the track is named. The first 25 km of the walk from Newcastle to Teralba, Lake Macquarie is known as the Yuelarbah Track.

The Aboriginal people, in this area, the Awabakal, were the first people of this land.

 
Map - Kahibah (Kahibah)
Country - Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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