Nobbys Head and Breakwall

The Hunter Institutes Faculty of Transport runs the Newcastle Maritime Training Centre at the Newcastle Campus. Courses include maritime and marine engineering, boat and ship building etcetera. The Institute also offers courses online.From its early beginnings as an isolated island, Nobbys has changed significantly over the past 200 years. Not until the discovery of coal by Europeans in 1797 by Lt. John Shortland was the region viewed as having any significance.Captain James Cook was the first European to note Nobby’s Island from the ship Endeavour and he described it as "a small clump of an island lying close to shore". This less than complimentary description of Nobbys Head was written in his private log on the 10th May 1770.Historical thinking was that Nobbys was twice the height of what it is today. Original references to Nobbys height were based on the work of British naval officer, Ensign Francis Barrallier, who estimated the height at about 62 metres (203 feet) in 1801.