Community Quirks

Welcome to all the new residents in our area celebrating your first Christmas in our community. We all think our community is great, here are some of the reasons why we love to live where we do.

Seaworthy Santa

For several generations there’s been a tradition of Santa cruising the western Lake foreshores on Christmas Eve, heralding in the festive season, singing carols, and spreading cheer, in the form of lolly bags, to children who flock to the foreshore reserves to give the big guy a wave and a yo-ho-ho.

Back in the day the Wangi Queen was Santa’s boat-de-jour, but with ‘The Queen’ retiring a few years ago the Toronto Sunrise Rotary Club took up the Santa sack and have continued the local tradition with local boats.

If you feel like joining in the festivities you can join the flotilla from Bolton Point at 4.30 pm or bring the family to one of the local jetties listed below to enjoy this wonderful community tradition. This year will be a little different, alas no lollies, spreading cheer not COVID was the priority.

• Bolton Point- 4:30 pm
• Toronto 5:00 pm
• Kilaben Bay 6:15 pm
• Rathmines 6:45 pm
• Wangi Workers Club 7:15 pm

Waterfront Walking

Another long-time and strong tradition in our community has been the ability for locals to walk along the foreshore as a mode of recreation. Without safe pedestrian paths in our community, the relatively flat foreshore has always been a walking option. Whilst acknowledging that there are absolute waterfront properties in our community with boundaries extending to the high water mark, the neighbourly notion that it was OK to walk past was greatly appreciated and part of keeping the community connected.

Backyard Buddies

Enjoying our bigger bushland backyard and the abundant bird and wildlife is another peculiarity of the Coal Point Peninsula. The sunrise cacophony and sunset chorus of the kookaburra is something special that our suburbs still have. We have large remnant trees with the capacity for kookaburras to make their nests in. The midnight meditative hoots of the migratory koels can be heard above the bark-a-lot dogs, punctuating the day and night, a sound to treasure. Our bushland provides not only a corridor for birds to move through but food and shelter for the wildlife. Responsible pet ownership is key to keeping these places safe for our community-pets-without-borders, our ‘backyard buddies’. https://backyardbuddies.org.au

The Chronicle

The Chronicle has been gracing the letterboxes of the CPPA community since January 1980, with 317 editions circulated to date. The newsletter is wholly produced and distributed by volunteers with sponsorship of spaces covering the printing costs. It takes 3-4 days each month to write, collate and edit the content, lay it out for printing, put it online and distribute into 2300 letter boxes in Coal Point, Carey Bay, Kilaben Bay and Toronto areas.

The demise of the local newspapers in the past year has meant that The Chronicle was one of the few hard copy information sources available with a perspective on the local issues of importance. The protection of the Toronto Foreshore, local sustainability initiatives, development applications, a multitude of Council’s plans and strategies as well neighbours noticing nature, landcare activities and insights on our local flora and fauna regularly grace the space on the yellow pages.

You can also view the Chronicle online - https://coalpointprogress.blogspot.com
or subscribe to receive an email each month with The Chronicle articles, coalpointprogress@gmail.com.

Heaven Can Wait (HCW) Charity Regatta (5-6 Feb)

The HCW Charity Regatta was conceived and inaugurated by Lake Macquarie resident, keen sailor and cancer survivor Shaun Lewicki as a major annual sailing event on the lake to promote sailing and to raise funds for cancer research – particularly men’s cancers. As the survival rates from cancer have improved, so have the needs of the Hunter Branch of Cancer Council NSW, and the funds raised from this regatta are now directed to the Home Help Program. This program provides domestic assistance to both recovering and terminal cancer patients who, because of their illness, are unable to perform many of the domestic duties they would normally do.

In the 15 years that this event has been run, it has raised some $470,000 in support of the charities and it’s expected to be well over the $500,000 after the 2022 event.

The 16th HCW Charity Sailing Regatta will be run over the weekend of February 5 and 6.

The Charity Dinner will again be held on the preceding Friday - February 4th, at the Royal Motor Yacht Club Toronto.

Race Entry and information can be found on the RMYC website - https://www.rmyctoronto.com.au/heaven-can-wait

CPPA Membership Renewal is underway

Membership to the Coal Point Progress Association aligns with the calendar year. Shortly all existing members will be given an update about their membership status, whether they need to renew or how long their multi-year membership has left to run.

If you’re not a member and would like to join, a membership form is available on the website or by emailing cppa.membership@gmail.com.