| Patonga Central Coast, New South Wales |
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Panorama taken from Patonga Beach |
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| Population: | 223 (2006 census) | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 2256 | ||||||||||||
| Location: | |||||||||||||
| LGA: | City of Gosford | ||||||||||||
| Parish: | Patonga | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Gosford | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Robertson | ||||||||||||
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Patonga is a suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the north bank of the Hawkesbury River, southwest of Woy Woy. It is part of the City of Gosford local government area.
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Patonga is a small riverside community. It is bounded by swamps and the Brisbane Water National Park to the north, Broken Bay to the east, Brisk Bay and the Hawkesbury River to the south and Patonga Creek to the west.
Lion Island is located in Broken Bay to the suburb's southeast.
The community is reachable either by road, Patonga Drive from the northeast, or by ferry from Palm Beach and Brooklyn.
Patonga means "oyster" in the Guringai people's language, whose country stretched from the north side of Port Jackson to the southern end of Lake Macquarie. Early English language maps of the area spelt Patonga as "Betonga".[2][3]
Oyster farming is the main local industry. Patonga Creek was once navigable by fairly large vessels, but now averages about half a metre in depth. Gosford City Council have acknowledged the siltation problem.[4]
Day trippers from Sydney and other areas of the Central Coast provide support to the handful of retail outlets.[5]
Patonga Camping Area, operated by Gosford City Council, is located at the southern end of Patonga and Bay Streets.[6][7] Often young families from the nearby towns of Umina Beach, Ettalong Beach and Woy Woy camp on weekends during the warmer months.
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