User:AussieLegend/Port Stephens Council

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As a personal project I've been working on all Port Stephens LGA related articles. This includes, as of 23 May 2008 (AEST), articles for all suburbs listed by the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales as well as any other article that seems relevant to Port Stephens Council. This document should shed some light on the way that articles have been edited and my reasons for editing them that way.

[edit] Article content and Stockton Beach

Aside from Stockton Beach, New South Wales and the Port Stephens Council suburbs template only existing articles have been edited. No new suburb articles have been created. Information on Stockton Beach was previously included in the Stockton, New South Wales article however Stockton Beach is 32 km long and is a major part of the coastline for 5 suburbs and two towns, 6 of which are in the Port Stephens LGA. Only 5 km of the beach is located in Stockton and several notable aspects of the beach (wreck of the Sygna, Tin City and various entry points are located outside of Stockton in Port Stephens localities. Because of this I felt that it should have its own article that could be linked to by those 7 other articles, rather than duplicate data in each article.

[edit] Progress

To date I have "standardised" the articles by including or changing infoboxes, adding appropriate categories, adding photos if & when I obtain/find them and by correcting some data.

[edit] Infoboxes

Manual infoboxes have been replaced by infoboxes based on Template:Infobox Australian Place/Blank. A version of this, tailored for Port Stephens articles is at User:AussieLegend/Australian place article starter. Because of the size of the Port Stephens LGA (979 km²) and the geographically diverse locations and widely varying sizes of the various Port Stephens localities I have made some minor departures from what is suggested on the template information and discussion pages. For example, I have included distances in all infoboxes. The distance from each suburb to Sydney (the state capital), Newcastle (the nearest major city) and Raymond Terrace (the administrative centre and council seat for the LGA). Where the subject of the article is relatively close to Maitland and therefore access to the area is generally through Maitland I have included a distance to that city as well.

Distances used in the infoboxes were originally GPS direct measured distances rather than road distances because it was a lot faster to calculate distances this way than it was to find road distances. These are being progressively replaced as time permits. Those articles that have been changed are listed in the table at User:AussieLegend/To Do.

In a nutshell, I have attempted to fully populate infoboxes where possible and give them all the same look and feel. This includes the addition of citations.

Localities/suburbs around the subject of the article have been derived from maps obtained from the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Where maps aren't available I have listed the relevant LGA in lieu of the locality or suburb.

Suburbs and towns have been identified appropriately in the infoboxes. While towns are suburbs of the Port Stephens LGA they are towns in their own right so they have been identified that way. Some areas, like Bobs Farm are really neither suburbs nor towns but they have been identified in the infoboxes as suburbs.

Images that represent the locality have been used where I have been able to obtain them. In some cases, such as One Mile I have had to resort to a sign but this is only because there is really nothing else that is suitable and I'd rather not stick with the Port Stephens Council logo. The Port Stephens Council logo has been used on pages where no image has yet been obtained.

Templates On 8 September 2007 I created Template:Suburbs of Port Stephens and added it to all location articles (towns, suburbs and localities) to aid in navigation between related pages.

[edit] Categories

There are a number of categories that seem relevant to Port Stephens Council articles. These are:

• Category:Bays of Australia - A number of suburbs around Port Stephens are named after adjacent bays
• Category:Beaches of Australia - There are plenty of beaches. Some are notable while others are not. This category has been used where the beach name is known and is reasonably notable
• Category:Geography of New South Wales - I have tried to include geographical information in the articles
• Category:Port Stephens Council - This one should be obvious
• Category:Towns in New South Wales - This should also be obvious. As previously stated, a number of Port Stephens suburbs are towns in their own right. Glen Oak, while not a town now, was originally a thriving town and so it has been given this category.

[edit] Port Stephens Council article list

Below is a list of all Port Stephens towns, suburbs and localities according to the Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Names in red do not have associated articles however articles exist for the rest.

[edit] Port Stephens Council towns, suburbs and localities

+ Suburbs with no article as of 10 June 2008

• currently a redirect to Lemon Tree Passage, New South Wales but could be used as an article on the passage itself (maybe)

Active suburb articles as of 10 June 2008 = 30 (out of 43)

[edit] Other articles

The following articles are also associated with Port Stephens Council:

Active other articles as of 10 June 2008 = 25

[edit] Total number of articles

As of 10 June 2008 the total article count for the Port Stephens Council category is: 55

[edit] Timeline section from Seaham Public School

[edit] 19th century

• 1850 - Land for a National School at Seaham is gazetted.
• 1852 - Seaham Public School opens in a small wooden cottage by the local swamp.
• 1859 - The schoolhouse is deemed "unsafe" and in need of major repairs.
• 1862 - Daily attendance at the school varies from 12 to 29, when it should have been up to 50.
• 1884 - Land is gazetted for a new public school and teacher's residence on higher land. The school still occupies this site today.
• 1885 - New classroom and teacher's residence is completed.
• 1886 - The new school is practically empty because pupils are grape cutting at local vineyards.

[edit] 20th century

• 1909 - More land is set aside for school purposes.
• 1939 - The school is destroyed in bushfires. Remains of the brick classroom would be unearthed during 2002 in the school's playground by pupils.
• 1955 - A new teacher's residence is built at Seaham, fronting Still Street. The building is today utilized as the school office.
• 1968 - A new brick veneer classroom is completed on school grounds, the first permanent classroom built since 1885.
• 1970 - Student numbers dwindle and the school faces imminent closure. There are less than 12 pupils enrolled at the school.
• 1978 - Rapid acceleration in enrolments saves the school from closure. The boom in numbers will be further increased during the 1980s and 1990's by the Brandy Hill Estate.
• 1982 - Enrolments reach 52. Classes have to be held in the Seaham School of Arts hall as the school struggles to accommodate new students.
• 1994 - Four new permanent brick classrooms are completed to accommodate booming enrollments.

[edit] 21st century

• 2002 - School celebrates 150 years of public education and is granted $1 million to build a new permanent library and two new brick veneer classrooms. Both the library and classrooms are in use by the end of the year.

• Seaham Public School website

[edit] Great Lakes Council suburbs

The following is a ist of all suburbs in the Great Lakes Council LGA that front Port Stephens, listed in the order that they sit from west(1) to east(7). Eventually I plan to populate these articles.

1. Tahlee
2. Carrington
3. North Arm Cove
4. Bundabah
5. Pindimar
6. Tea Gardens
7. Hawks Nest