The Mysterious Origins of the Bogey Hole

Background to the original 2010 post. (Please note the links to the LPMA site are now dead) This post was updated in 2019 with extra material kindly provided by Susan Effenberger.

“We attended an information session yesterday (1 December 2010) organised by Andrew Ling from the LPMA, and the designers Steve and Barney Collins who took us through their rationale and draft plans to address the safety concerns for Newcastle’s historic Bogey Hole. They want to retain the “wildness” of the place, and fix up the slippery stairs problem by floating a walkway over the top of the original stairs, then curve around to a platform. It looked pretty good. More information and draft plans could once be accessed here on the LPMA’s website – Restoration of safe access to Newcastle’s Bogey Hole . You have until December 10 to comment to coastalharbours@lpma.nsw.gov.au If you are interested in attending future info sessions email: andrew.ling@lpma.nsw.gov.au ”

Origins of the name ‘Bogey Hole‘

by Gionni Di Gravio

The Bogey Hole Baths, under Shepherd’s Hill, belonging to the Corporation, have been enlarged, deepened, and have an iron railing placed around them for safety. Major Morrissett, the second last Governor of the Penal Settlement, made the walk now so popular round the Upper Reserve or Horse-Shoe Bend. He was very fond of sea bathing, and had a hole excavated in the rocks, which he used as a bath. The place was for years referred to as a “Commandant’s Bath”. It was afterwards considerably enlarged and called the “Bogey Hole,” by which it has ever since been known. – John Windross & J.P. Ralston. Historical Records of Newcastle 1797-1897. Newcastle, 1897. p.40

We haven’t found anything referring to the excavation of baths in Morrissett’s testimony to Commissioner Bigge, and neither would we expect it.

It was probably a ‘foreign order’ for the Commandant’s pleasure to pull a number of convicts from another task to his private bath. I have asked NSW State Records to look into whether there exists any records of its original construction.

The earliest reference to it we have found (located in January 2012) is a Conrad Marten drawing dated the 13th May 1841 and held in the State Library of New South Wales. It was labelled “Morrisets Bath”.

Item 76 Morrisets Bath, Newcastle, 13th May 1841
from Sketches in Australia, 1835-1865 by Conrad Martens (1801-1878)
View Album: http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=457268#

This drawing then enabled us to locate a mention of “Morriset’s Bath” in the Sydney Morning Herald for the 16th April 1851 p. 3:

Possessing a good climate and means of sea-bathing, Newcastle is much frequented by invalids and visitors during the summer season, and would be much more so were house-room less difficult to be procured, and the facilities of sea-bathing encreased ; some improvements to this end have lately been made. Formerly “the ladies’ corner” of the beach, and Colonel Morriset’s bath, were alone available for bath-ing purposes, but now a ladies’ bathing-house, which is much in request, has been constructed near to the breakwater on the harbour side. The city contains many good and respectable looking houses, although none of them can lay any claim to architectural beauty. – See: Port of Newcastle http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/12926360

The earliest mention we have found thus far that in the newspapers as the ‘Bogey Hole’ is from as early as 1861. (Source: Trove)

A search through the meanings of ‘bogey’ prove quite interesting, as all are derivations refer to the supernatural.

bogey – In English folklore a horrible evil spirit or hobgoblin, usually big and black, who scares children. The “Bogey-Man” or “Boogie-Man” arrives at night and appears in bedrooms and at the sides of beds. In appearance the bogey often looks like the dark silhouette of a man. The bogey is called the bwg (ghost) in Welsh, bogle in Scotland, and Boggelmann in German. Among other names are bug-a-boo, boo, bugbear, bock, and boggart. The Irish puca is similar. Bogey also is another name for the DEVIL.
– Rosemary Ellen Guiley. The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonology. p.33

Bogy, bogey. is related to ‘bogle’ and ‘bug’. Earliest 19th century use as nickname for Satan. Hence the proverb bogey, the “colonel” at golf. Perhaps ultimately cognate with Puck.
Bug = Spectre from Welsh ‘bwg’, ghost.
Bogle [Archaic] spectre (c.1500) Probably from the Celtic cf. Welsh bwgwl, meaning terror.
– Weekley, Etymological Dictionary.

Bogey – probaby derived from the Slavonic bog meaning god.
Other forms of sprite, spectre or goblin are:
bog-a-boo, boo (Yorkshire)
boggart, bogle (Scotland)
boggle, begest, bar-gest, boll, boman and bogey allied to boll (Northern) – meaning apparition.
– Lewis Spence. Dictionary of Occultism

Colonel Bogey was the imaginary player in golf that the other players were supposed to compete with, instead of with one another.

The scholar who did the hard yards tracking down the etymological origins of the word ‘bogey’ appears to be John Fiske who published his work around 1872. His analysis appears on pages 141-143 of the edition below:

Myths and Mythmakers: Old Tales and Superstitions interpreted by Comparative Mythology by John Fiske.
Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1902.

He believes the “Bogie” to be identical with “Puck” and the Slavonic “Bog”, “Baga” of the Cuniform inscriptions, “Bhaga” of Old Aryan in the Sanskrit of the Vedas and “Bagaios” the Phrygian Zeus. It originally denoted an unclouded sun or noon day illumined by the solar rays.

In speaking of the origins of Buckle Street as an older trackway or road used in the sense of Bogle or Bogie, Harold Bayley says:

It was always the custom of a later race to attribute any great work of unknown origin to Bogle or the Devil, e.g., the Devil’s Dyke, and innumerable other instances.
-Harold Bayley, Archaic England pp. 518-519

and

The elemental Bog is the Slavonic term for God, and when the early translators of the Bible rendered ” terror by night ” as ” bugs by night ” they probably had spooks or bogies in their mind. In Etruria as in Egypt the bug or maybug was revered as the symbol of the Creator Bog, because the Egyptian beetle has a curious habit of creating  small pellets or balls of mud. In Welsh bogel means the navel, also centre o/ a wheel, and hence Margaret or Peggy may be equated with the nave or peg of the white-rayed Marguerite or Day’s Eye? – Bayley ibid p. 233

The Bogey Hole is a special and sacred place that needs to be approached with respect like we would a holy grotto. It is a mysterious place that obviously had connections for our forebears as a place of ancient spirits and ghosts.

It has just dawned on me that perhaps the ‘Bogey’ or ‘Bogey Man’ is none other than Major Morrissett (King Lash) himself.

Origin of the term Bogey Hole

By Sue Effenberger

Many accounts suggest that Bogey (also spelt bogie) came into the Australian dialect from Dharuk, the Aboriginal language of the Sydney region, where it meant ‘to bathe or swim’.

From ANU Australian National Dictionary Centre Australian Words A-B http://www.anu.edu.au/andc/res/aus_words/aewords/aewords_ab.php, the earliest records show the term being used in the pidgin English of Aborigines.

Bogey Hole Newcastle NSW

An Historical Timeline

(Created from the work of Sue Effenberger)

1818

In 1818 Major James Thomas Morisset (1780-1852) was promoted from Lieutenant to Major in the 48^th Foot regiment, and relieved Captain James Wallis as commandant at Newcastle, where he became magistrate. He earned praise at Newcastle for the continuation of Wallis’s work, improving the breakwater and Macquarie Pier and building roads and barracks.  There he earned a reputation as a good penal administrator, who paid attention to the fair and individual treatment of convicts.  In 1821 Governor Lachlan Macquarie visited Newcastle and admired Morisset’s public works, naming Morisset’s Lagoon in his honour. Special commissioner John Bigge singled Morisset out for praise in the “The Bigge Inquiry” Royal Commission that he conducted from 1819 to 1822, when he published the first report.  He published the second and third reports in 1823.  The terms of the reports were to investigate the New South Wales colonial government, then under Governor Lachlan Macquarie, including finances, the Church, judiciary, and the convict penal system.  Bigge praised Morisset for his treatment of convicts and also admired the constructed public works in Newcastle for their “durability rather than ornamentation”. It is during this period, using military labour, that Commandant Morisset either began, or continued the construction of the Bogey Hole ocean bathing pool facility after Captain Wallis initiated it.  These baths served Morisset during his term as a private bathing place, known as the “Commandant’s Bath”.  Its original size is estimated as 15 feet long, seven feet wide and six feet deep.He left Newcastle in 1823.

1819

Most historical accounts accredit the first construction into the natural rock platform between 1819 and 1822 to Commandant James Morisset.  There is speculation about whether he commissioned his soldiers or convicts to do the work, because he wished to use it as a private ocean bath.  Alternative accounts state that previous Commandant Captain Wallis began the works for the Bogey Hole before him, around the time of first settlement.

1821

John Bingle (1796-1882) writing in 1873 recalls his first visit to Newcastle in December 1821 (Past and Present Records of Newcastle New South Wales by John Bingle, 1873. p.7) and given a tour with Major James Thomas Morisset (1780-1852) which included the Bogey Hole (referred to as “Morriset’s Bath”). He says:

The Commandant’s Residence named the Government House, was situated in the line of Watt-Street, about one hundred yards from the corner of the Barrack wall in Church Street. This building was a convenient and pretty cottage, but was unfortunately destroyed by fire some time after Major Morriset left to join his Regiment. At the back of it, over a hill, the Major had made a pretty (p.12) walk called the Horseshoe, the only outlet even to the present day, in the shape of a pleasant stroll, and as the rocks washed by the sea he had a bath excavated for his own use, which remains in its primitive state – called Morriset’s Bath. – Bingle, Past and Present Records of Newcastle NSW, pp. 11-12.

1830s

The Armstrong map of 1830 denotes the church, parsonage house, and cemetery south of Church Street that had been granted to the Church of England.  According to one historical account (Hunter 2001) the Church of England in the 1830s returned some of this land to the east back to the Crown in exchange for other land.  On this exchanged land at the coastal edge, new military barracks, offices, gardens and a parading ground replaced the deteriorating structures of Watt Street, dating from the rule of Morisset.  The remaining land became reserved public land. These reserves became known as Upper and Lower Reserves and today, they are respectively Fletcher Park and King Edward Park (including Shepherd’s Hill).  The reserves included pasture land, creeks, mines, ventilation shafts, water pits, the obelisk where the government windmill stood and perhaps the rock ledge.  Around this time Bogey Hole had the name “Commandant’s Baths”.  The government dedicated the reserve at the top of the cliff for public recreation since 1863, from the Australian Agricultural Company coal grants.  Newcastle Municipal Council had control over the site. Armstrong map of 1830 notes “Formerly Commandant’s Residence”, “Old Flag Staff”, “Coal to the Rise or East of this Yellow Line Has Been Worked”, referring to the coastal strip including the cliffs alongside King Edward Park.  The Commandant’s residence was probably on the south bank of the creek draining to the “Blow Hole” north of “Bogey Hole”.

1841

On the 13th May 1841 Conrad Martens visits the site of the Bogey Hole, then known as “Morrisets Bath” and creates a pencil drawing. Item 76 The original is held in the State Library of New South Wales. “Morrisets Bath, Newcastle, 13th May 1841” from Sketches in Australia, 1835-1865 by Conrad Martens (1801-1878) View Album: http://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=457268#

1842

First representative government granted to NSW and district councils with limited powers and inadequate resources.

1851

Newcastle has a reputation for being a sea-bathing place and residence for invalids (Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser 19/4/1851). Earliest mention of Bogey Hole as “Colonel Morriset’s bath” is 16 April 1851:

Further mentions as “Morrisett’s bath” see: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=%22Morrisets+Bath%22&sortby=dateAsc

1856

First order of business for the newly formed Newcastle Business Chamber is to lobby the Government to grant the Horseshoe, coastline and Obelisk area that John Bingle had visited all those years ago to the citizens of Newcastle. They also asked for two blocks of land in Watt Street to establish am Exchange and Reading Room.

The Government were induced by the Chamber to grant the citizens in perpetuity (35) thirty five acres of land as a recreation ground in the most delightful and picturesque part of Newcastle from the top of Watt Street round the Horse Shoe, to the Obelisk. – Bingle, Past and Present Records of Newcastle NSW, p. 21

1860

Details of the proposals were recorded on an official Government Chart dated July 1860, copies made and distributed to citizens in the Town:

The Exchange and Reading Room, with offices and shipping books similar to Lloyd’s of London, was established at the same time as the Chamber of Commerce, May 1856, and destroyed in 1859 as I have just stated. …Soon after the formation of the Exchange, and when in working order, they applied to the Government to allot then a piece of land for the erection of a suitable building, which was given at the same time the post-office site was selected, and the adjoining allotment to it was given as the site of an exchange, and was marked so on an official Government chart, issues from the Surveyor General’s office, Sydney and dated July 1860. – Bingle, Past and Present Records of Newcastle NSW, p. 23

See the 1860 “Bingle” plan here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/6070840885/

1861

Earliest known newspaper account as “Bogey Hole” 1861 ‘CORRESPONDENCE.’, The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River District News (NSW : 1859 – 1866), 11 December, p. 2. , viewed 24 Apr 2019, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article111169438 For all subsequent newspaper articles on the “Bogey Hole” see: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=%22bogey+hole%22&sortby=dateAsc

1863

Crown dedicates 40 acres for recreation purposes (NSW Government Gazette 16/7/1863) in the present site of King Edward Park.  This included the area occupied by the present day Shepherds Hill military fort.  The green edging around the Reserve on the map does not include Bogey Hole, but would require further historical status to verify with certainty.  Control of the baths passed to the Newcastle Municipal Council for public use as a pool.  Men and women were not allowed to use the baths at the same time.  As the baths did not adequately address all of Newcastle’s needs for sea-bathing, citizens continued to agitate and plan for public sea baths.

1873

John R. Bingle’s personal copy of the Past and Present Records of Newcastle New South Wales. (13.8MB PDF File)

John Bingle (1796-1882) account of Newcastle’s history is published. (See 1821 entry above) Provides an account of a visit to Newcastle in December 1821 with the then Commandant of the Penal Settlement, Major James Thomas Morisset (1780-1852). He was taken on tour around the site of the town, and surrounding areas behind the Government House now King Edward Park and Bogey Hole.

1878

In a dense fog, the SS City of Newcastle (an iron paddlewheel steamer engaged in the Sydney-Newcastle-Morpeth cargo and passenger trade) ran aground on rock just south of the Bogey Hole.  Passengers and crew stepped ashore on a plank without even getting their feet wet.  After remaining on the Bogey Hole Rocks for many years, the rusted remains of this ship were eventually reclaimed by the ocean. The steamer’s crank shafts were housed at the former Newcastle Region Maritime Museum.

1879

Heavy seas swept a man at the Bogey Hole into ‘the well-known dressing cave‘. The man survived with cuts and bruises but his experience cautioned swimmers.

1880

With the increased interest in Ladies’ Bathing, Newcastle Borough Council decided to allow bathing of both sexes at any hour “provided costumes be worn”.  The wearing of costumes was by no means universal.  “   The…ladies baths on the ocean beach below Ordnance street were renovated furnished with bathing requisites by the Council.  At the same time Council deepened and enlarged the Bogey Hole and put around it an iron railing for safety” (NMH 7/6/1909).  James Dimond rescued Miss Annie Leonard from drowning after being swept from the rocks.

1884

Newcastle Borough Council enlarged the Bogey Hole to its present size and added stanchions and chains in 1884. Council contracted out enlarging the Baths to their present size, which is about seven times the Bogey Hole’s original capacity. “…the track and flights of steps from the Recreation Reserve down to and across the horseshoe gully are completed, and two small bridges constructed.  At the end of a sidling path a rough flight of steps lead directly down to the hole itself…it has been very greatly enlarged and a capital clear salt water swim may now be had at any time entirely free of danger of sharks or otherwise…’(NMH 2/9/1884).

Locals urged construction of places for dressing and undressing, so that the improved baths would not become a white elephant.  The improvements produced ‘one of the finest swimming baths in NSW or Australia’.  It was ‘over 50 feet long and nearly as broad’ with a depth varying from five feet six inches to three feet six inches and a bottom ‘almost as smooth as a billiard table’ filled with pure sparkling sea water, so clear that one ‘could distinguish a button or a pin at the bottom of the deepest part’.  Best of all, these baths had no problems with ‘sharks, stingarees or jelly fish’ and boasted an iron safety rail, access track and bridges, as well as stairs and ledges cut into the rock face.

Within a month the Bogey Hole became ‘the aquatic hunting ground of the Newcastle larrikin and the most loathsome place of rendezvous in Newcastle‘. Police were being urged to reclaim the area from the lurchers.  Bylaws defined for Council’s indoor Corporation Baths also applied at the Bogey Hole. The baths catered mainly to male swimmers, with women only admitted only at set times.

There have been minor modifications to the baths since.  The changes affected mainly the area above the baths, including post war construction of the caretaker’s cottage, removal of the original timber change sheds, removal of a timber picket fence, and alterations to access steps and ordinance fencing.

1885

Newcastle proclaimed a city for a second time.  Tenders closed for the caretaker role at the Bogey Hole. Perhaps influenced by British indoor public baths which were often combined with public wash-houses and used washing machines to launder their towels, Newcastle’s mayor undertook to make enquiries about providing a washing machine for towels at the Bogey Hole.

1890

Walter Hendy undressed, left his clothes at Bogey Hole and disappeared mysteriously (SMH 17/2/1890)

1891

1893

Public baths (unconstructed) at Newcastle Beach dedicated 4/12/1893.  Council put the popular Bogey Hole in order and installed dressing-sheds and showers to use water piped 150 yards from a natural spring.

1894

Newcastle Borough Council considered the Bogey Hole safe for bathers ‘except in the roughest weather and during high tides‘, but was ‘largely patronised‘ even in heavy seas.  Council considered its iron stanchions and chains ‘efficient protection against the backwash‘.  The caretaker provided bathers with towels.  The Bogey Hole had become known as ‘the place where many generations of Newcastle boys have taken their first essays in natation …and breasting the billow‘.  In spite of the dangers of breaking surf, people lined the paths to the Bogey Hole to ‘lave their limbs in the fresh and cooling wave’.  During school vacations, the Bogey Hole was a ‘favourite place of resort with the youthful as well as the adult portion of the sterner sex‘.  The NSW Govt revoked the dedication of gaz 16/7/1863 (gaz 153 3/3/1894).  The new dedication added an area of 1ac 2r 23p for defence purposes to the original area of 40 acres for recreation purposes.

1900

Newcastle’s retiring mayor organised improvements to the Bogey Hole to prevent bathers being violently dashed into the caves.

1905

Newcastle became a seaside resort, “possessing a good climate and means of seabathing it is much frequented by invalids and visitors during the summer season…formerly the Ladies corner of the beach [end Ordnance Street] and Colonel Morisset’s bath [Bogey Hole] were alone available for bathing purposes but now a ladies bathing house which is much in request has been constructed near to the breakwater on the harbour side” [end of Zaara street?].  Photos of old Newcastle Turner and Sullivan.”   Within the last few years the ocean beach from the end of Telford Street to the end of Zaara Street has been gazetted a public bathing place.  Since then, Council has effected extensive improvements along the beach (NMH note Public baths ded 8/12/1893 Plan 1133-3070 30/6/1905).

1906

Ground “creep” at Newcastle purportedly caused by subsidence from the AAC mine workings (“Sea Pit”) behind the cliff and up the Hill.  The “creep” was said to extend in a north-easterly direction from Ordnance Street along the cliff to the Shepherds Hill military fort.  This caused the cliff to crack for some distance and many boulders loosened and fell into Bogey Hole (SMH 16/5/1906).

1907

As Newcastle’s Soldiers Baths and its Bogey Hole were primarily for men’s use, closure of the indoor Corporation baths meant Newcastle’s women and girls had very limited access to good venues for learning to swim.

1908

Half a ton of rock fell into the Bogey Hole in a single rock fall.  Royal Commission enquiry into the 1906 Newcastle creep, describing water gushing from the cliffs above Bogey Hole.  AAC denied that the subsidence from coal mining had any effect on the surface (SMH 4/3/1908).

1910

The Reserve above Bogey Hole named King Edward Park in memory of the late King Edward who died on 10/5/1910

1911

Newcastle City Council.  The Bogey Hole was ‘practically the only place in Newcastle where swimming can be taught, making it desirable that women and girls have access to it’. More than 100 ladies petitioned the council seeking to have more hours at the Bogey Hole reserved for use by women and children on weekdays and on Saturdays. Despite concerns that it might have to provide a female attendant at the Bogey Hole on those days, the Newcastle Council approved ladies use of the Bogey Hole on two afternoons a week.

1915

Rock climber became stranded for an hour and half 140 yards up the cliff at Bogey Hole when the cliff crumbled away underneath him (SMH 15/2/1915).  His rescuer dug footholds for him with a pick and shovel so he could climb to safety.

1922

James Clunes died from injuries sustained whilst constructing a path to Bogey Hole and being hurled down the cliff by rockfall, and crushed by a large boulder (SMH 8/7/1922).  That same year Ernest Whitton a 15 year old fell down the cliff into the sea (SMH 20/9/1922).

1926

Boulders and loose shale fell into the sidewalk to Bogey Hole.  No injury or loss of life (SMH 31/12/1936).

1927

A car crashed through barriers and fell 230 feet.  Surprisingly the driver and passenger survived the crash without a scratch. (SMH 16/9/1927).

1928

A man fell over the cliff to the rocks below and was rescued semi conscious.  He managed to crawl out of the reach of waves that would wash him out to sea.  He was intending to shelter the night in an old disused shed (The Argus Melbourne 23/4/1928).

1935

An abandoned suitcase, a hat and pea rifle at Bogey Hole aroused police suspicion, but they could not find a crime (SMH 15/5/1935).

1938

“We must remember that the beaches of Australia has not always been thronged with surfers, bronzed lifesavers, and trunks that Mr. Spooner cannot ban. Although swimming dates from the earliest days of settlement, it was not till 1900 that surfing became popular. In the early days of Newcastle, swimming was confined to compulsory dips for convicts after their voyage up from Sydney, and the more leisurely recreation of military officers in the sparkling depths of Major Morriset’s bath, now the Bogey Hole.

As the numbers of free citizens in- creased, the sport became more usual, but it was still restricted by regulations that quite out-Spoonered the most binding red tape of to-day. Then in 1900 surfing came to stay, its devotees quaintly garbel from ankle to neck in the most horrible costumes that the debased minds of milliners could conceive. The sexes bathed separately, and bathing was done before breakfast.

Public Works

Public works by convicts became common in Newcastle about the time that Captain Wallis was commandant. Evidently, he did not consider convict labourers or their work sufficiently interesting to merit his attention.

As memorials of their sweaty and often bloody toil, however, the convicts have left the breakwater connecting Nobbys with the mainland, and the unique bathing pool called the Bogey-hole.

The Bogey-hole was built by convicts under the direction of a former Commandant (Major Morriset), whose house was situated somewhere near the present intersection of Watt and Church Streets, and connected with “Morriset’s Bath” by a pleasant path called the “Horseshoe Bend.”

1940

There were sixty to seventy swimmers in the pool, women in the dressing shed and boys sunbaking on the top, when a large boulder crashed from the cliff top though the women’s dressing sheds at Bogey Hole.  All escaped injury.  The crashing boulder made a noise like a shell exploding.  A young boy, Peter Youll, was playing with his brother when he fell down the cliff (SMH 9/11/1940).

1945

City of Greater Newcastle Council sought a Department of War Organisation permit to make improvements to Bogey Hole Baths and provide accommodation for its caretaker.

1946

A rockfall caused by heavy downpour at Bogey Hole destroyed the caretaker’s cottage, seriously injuring the caretaker.  A large boulder sent Bogey Hole’s 60-year old caretaker Alexander Stevens and sent his wife into shock. Stevens was taken to hospital with a fractured skull and concussion, as well as abrasions to his head, hands and shoulder.  His subsequent death had been attributed to the accident *(Canberra Times 17/4/1946).  A 3 ½ year old child was swept from the rocks by a wave at the baths (SMH 4/2/1946).

1948

The caretaker’s cottage at the Bogey Hole was in a shocking state and being vandalised.  Two youths drowned in heavy surf when they were gathering fishing weed from the rocks (SMH 8/3/1948).  Newcastle Surf Club members were recognised for their bravery in trying to rescue the stricken youths (SMH 16/4/1948).

1950

Council planned a new caretaker’s cottage in a new location to replace the older cottage abandoned after a boulder fell on it.

1958

Newcastle’s Greek and Macedonian Orthodox community began celebrating Epiphany services at the Bogey Hole including the Blessing Of The Seas, traditional in the many Aegean communities.  The ceremony involved tossing a cross into the Bogey Hole for the unmarried men of their community to dive in and retrieve.  Finding the cross was thought to confer good luck on the finder.

2002

The cliff road to Bogey Hole was temporarily closed when boulders weighing 10 and 20 tonnes crashed from a severely eroded cliff face at Newcastle South Beach.  Newcastle City Council undertook essential works to stabilise the cliff.

2003

NSW Government listed Bogey Hole on the State Heritage register.

A wave knocked a man exploring the base of the cliff unconscious and he drowned when swept from the rocks.  The same year a man dived into the Bogey Hole, hit his head in shallow water, and sustained severe spinal injuries.  When other swimmers and safety crew winched him to safety a huge wave pounded the rock where he had been lying.

A rockfall near the Bogey Hole forced the Newcastle City Council to close the Bogey Hole.  Bogey Hole only reopened after Council removed loose sandstone, stabilised the cliff and completed the latest section of Bathers Way.

2004

Newcastle City Council completed the pathway extension through King Edward Park from Shepherds Hill to the Bogey Hole. NSW Government provided $490,000 towards the Shortland Esplanade cliff stabilisation project and $5,000 towards the Newcastle Emergency Management Action Plan for conditions of high seas and storms.

2005

State Government and Department of Lands resumes management of the Bogey Hole under the CLA 1989.  Government concerns prevail over the cliff stability and public risk and debate regarding its future use and liabilities as a public amenity ensues.

2008

Due to the fatalities and serious injuries NSW State Government decided to close Bogey Hole in October with appropriate signage and fencing.

2010

Care control and management for the site is currently covered by the Newcastle Coastline Management Plan, etc and is currently being documented through the Newcastle Coastline Revitalisation Project and Master Plan underway as a public private partnership project, LPMA being one of the agencies.  Nathan Luke died on Australia Day whilst diving into Bogey Hole after hitting his head on a submerged rock (The Herald 23/2/2010).

Today

Bogey Hole is a much-loved bathing place in the dramatic and natural setting of the rocky Newcastle coastline.  The site is heritage-listed on registers for both NSW State Heritage Inventory and National Trust of Australia (NSW). Today the Bogey Hole remains the oldest constructed ocean bath in Australia.  It is still a popular swimming hole and place of social interaction, providing an exhilarating interaction with the ocean.

Throughout history, there have been periodic episodes of rock falls and swimming accidents leading to injury and death.  Therefore, government agencies remain vigilant about public access, risk of rock falls, and safe ways that the public might freely enjoy this significant heritage site.