Dividing Up Country
Toronto Estate Subdivision Posters from Lake Macquarie
Drawn up in 1901, 1914 and 1920, these land subdivision sale posters from Toronto, Lake Macquarie, illustrate small pieces of what was essentially an enormous jigsaw puzzle. Named the Toronto Estate, the ‘puzzle’ had been created in 1885-7, when the attractive lakeside land was first divided and auctioned by the Excelsior Land Investment and Building Company.
The Awabakal people had lived on the foreshores of Lake Macquarie (Awaba) for at least 20,000 years. The north-western parts were known as Derahbambah (rising ground), Pondee (overlooking view) and Toompoah (place of clay).
But the British Crown, having assumed ownership of Awabakal Country, granted 1280 acres of this land to Reverend Threlkeld in 1829, where he established an Aboriginal mission called Ebenezer. Threlkeld sold the land in 1844 and it was leased for farming. Rich with coal, close to Newcastle, and on a lake with beautiful scenery, the land quickly attracted settlers and investors.
In 1885, when the Excelsior Land Investment & Building Company purchased part of Ebenezer, plus a waterfront reserve from the Crown, they renamed the area Toronto, after the city in Ontario, Canada. It was considered one of the most picturesque places on the Lake, settlers argued that the foreshore should have been kept for the people.
