About North Arm Cove
North Arm Cove is a locality in the MidCoast Council area, in the centre of the Hunter and the southern end of the Mid North Coast, next to Port Stephens. It extends well north of the Pacific Highway and is sparsely populated, with most residents living in the southern part, in the village on the western shore of the cove.
In 1918 a large city-style subdivision of the peninsula was designed by the American architect Walter Burley Griffin, with Marion Mahony Griffin, under the name “Port Stephens City”.
How North Arm Cove got here
A few dates and facts that shaped the place.
1918
Walter Burley Griffin designs “Port Stephens City” to fit the narrow, finger-shaped peninsula, with central hubs, radiating roads and wide boulevards.
The 1920s
Henry Halloran, a leading surveyor and developer, extends and modifies the plan and further subdivides the land.
The railway
The branch line that was to join the main north line at Stroud is never built, and the city cannot happen without it.
More about North Arm Cove
Port Stephens was then under consideration as the main seaport for New South Wales, and the plan’s layout is clearly recognisable for the Griffins’ ideas: precincts for governance, commerce, retail, industry and housing, laid out around central hubs. The branch railway was never built, so the plan stayed on paper, and only the waterfront blocks on the southern shores were ever built on. Many of the dirt roads in the paper subdivision are still visible from the air.
For what can be built where, ask MidCoast Council: most of the 1918 subdivision is not zoned for dwellings.
Where is North Arm Cove?
North Arm Cove is in the MidCoast Council area on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales.
Nearby towns with hubs on OurHub, with straight-line distances: Tea Gardens (11 km east), Hawks Nest (13 km east), Stroud (30 km north), Bulahdelah (32 km north-east).
What the North Arm Cove directory lists
To eat and drink: Coffee in the Cove. Halls and community places: North Arm Cove Hall, Soldiers Point Community Hall.
Parks, beaches and recreation: Casurina Park, Everitt Park, Lancaster Park, Spencer Park. Emergency services: North Arm Cove Rural Fire Brigade.
Get in touch
A question, something out of date, a group to link, or the keys to this hub: send it here and someone at OurHub will get back to you.
Town facts: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites the Australian Bureau of Statistics census. Straight-line distances are worked out from the hub’s coordinates. Directory locations © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).