Moving south along the Queensland Coast, we come to the Hunter River and Newcastle. I don’t know if this was the original “coals to Newcastle” but it might as well have been. When the local coal started to run out, the city just switched to exporting from further inland and redirected toward beaches, water sports and a younger crowd. If you want all the details – go to Wiki or the town’s website
We docked next to what initially appeared to be a lovely green field on an island/peninsula out in the middle of nowhere. George headed off on the shuttle bus. I headed back to bed after looking out to see
what could almost be any European River town
Coals to Newcastle refers to the English Newcastle (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coals_to_Newcastle).
However it would be even more pointless to import coal to the Australian Newcastle which was named after the English city.
as was reminded by the engineer with whom we had dinner last night. Being from the original Newcastle, but said that the name choice was quite appropriate.