mlchad147
- Mar 10
- 3 min read

March 9, 2024–Newcastle, Australia

With Sydney reluctantly behind us, we’re now working our way north along Australia’s east coast towards the Great Barrier Reef and ultimately up into Asia. Before we get to Asia though, we have a few more ports to visit in Australia, including today’s stop in Newcastle, the country’s seventh largest city.

Newcastle reached that lofty population ranking despite being home to only 350,000 residents, not that surprising when you consider that Australia’s total population is only 26 million. Still, the city holds two number one rankings, as it is Australia’s busiest port and is the world’s largest coal exporting port.

After yesterday’s exhausting day in Sydney I was hoping for a quieter day today, and that’s just what we got. Our three hour bus tour took us first to the Newcastle Museum, where we spent a pleasant half hour or so wandering through the nicely done exhibits. Along with coal, steel has played a large role in Newcastle’s history, and the museum nicely documents that past. Unfortunately, the city’s last big steel mill recently closed. As a history buff I enjoy looking at old stuff, and there was plenty to keep me occupied until it was time to move on. It’s a well designed, modern museum, and I recommend it if you ever find your way to Newcastle.

Our next stop was at Blackbutt Reserve, a nature reserve where native Australian animals and birds are kept in their natural habitats. It’s not a particularly big place, but there’s a nice raised walkway that takes you around the main area, past koalas, wombats, and a little kangaroo-looking marsupial that is actually a swamp wallaby. Lots of birds too, and other creatures, from a large monitor lizard all the way down to poison dart frogs. We had to move through the exhibits fairly quickly because we were on a tight schedule, which was a little disappointing. I would have enjoyed spending a little more time enjoying these unique Australian animals, but as we have a full blown zoo tour scheduled in Brisbane in a couple days, I wasn’t overly concerned.

Our third and final stop was out at the coast, where Fort Scratchley stands guard over the harbor and beach. Fort Scratchley was considered important because its beach was deemed to be a likely invasion site by the Japanese during World War Two. The city’s steel mills were also strategically important, and the Japanese did actually shell the port once by submarine, but the three shots they fired were all far off target.

Several areas of the fort have been restored, and they were fun to poke around in. Some of the large guns are still in place and appear to be well maintained. The site is still an Australian military installation, and there were plenty of uniformed soldiers around who were happy to answer questions and provide information on the fort’s history. I should also add that, as you might expect of a harbor fort, the views were lovely. This was my favorite stop of the day. I did see a hat I really liked in the gift shop, but Michele cut me off—no more than one hat per country.

From the fort it was back to the ship for lunch, after which Michele opted to take the free shuttle back into town to poke around. I chose to call it an early day, which was much appreciated after yesterday’s epic assault on Sydney. Michele’s afternoon outing was a success, as she scored three books at a used bookstore.

Tomorrow is a sea day, after which we stop in Brisbane, where I’m very much looking forward to visiting the Irwin family’s zoo. See you then.