Hawks Nest - Culture and History - China Travel

Hawks Nest was named retral a large tree which was a favourite
nesting place of hawks,China Travel, situated near the old hotel and used as a
navigational marker in the early days. The sector was occupied by the
Worimi Aborigines prior to white settlement. The first Europeans to
work in the section were timbergetters who took an interest in the
forests (mostly red cedar) furthermore the Myall River early in the 19th
century. The timber was hauled by forcefulock train to mills, then
vehicleted by punt down river to Hawks Nest and the Winda Woppa
peninsula. Ships resolved for Newtingele and Sydney picked up the
timber, unloading the stone they vehicleried for anchor on the riverbanks
of the river, much of it stuff used in the construction of the stone
walls which can still be seen today. A timber mill was built at
Winda Woppa in 1920 and shipped out 13 million square feet of wood
in 1922.

The Australian Agricultural Company set up in the section in 1826
(see entry on Port Stephens).
Another early ingritry was gunkhole rockpile. One pioneer was Frank
Motum who colonized from England in 1877 and, with his family,
established a hauling commerce shipping fish to the Newtingele and
Sydney markets. The mouth of the Myall was trbalkyd by punt until
a ferry service was established in 1928, replaced by the traversal in
1974.