11-05-2025
Milking memories of a beloved Hunter rest stop
IT'S been a long time since this popular west Lake Macquarie area has been called The Gap.
We know it better today as Freemans Waterhole, a rest stop for food and fuel along a busy back road to Sydney.
Not as busy as it once was, of course, when it was a main route down south, but we live in a time of constant change.
It all changed for Freemans Waterhole, famous to motorists for decades for its familiar Oak Milk Bar, after the F3 Freeway (now the M1) was finally completed in 1987.
Now bypassed, trade began to steadily decline despite several attractions, including a music shell added to the still remote area surrounded by Awaba State Forest.
But you've got to say this about the landmark Oak restaurant: it's a survivor.
The first sign of impending change came almost 50 years ago, when Lake Macquarie Council renamed Old Maitland Road (the Gap Road) as Freemans Drive in October 1975.
Freemans Waterhole was the favourite name for this district hub about 12 kilometres west of Toronto, which brought road traffic along Palmers Road to link up with cars coming from both north and south.
Officially, this central site is 40km from Newcastle and also 13km from Cooranbong, 19km from Morisset and 124km from Sydney.
Meanwhile, who exactly were the Freemans?
The region owes its name to its first European settlers, James and Mary Ann Freeman, who sold cattle and lived in a hut near Wyee with their son about 1860.
Just south of The Gap, there was once a small timber settlement called Heatonville, but the name Freemans prevailed.
Now sandwiched between two service stations, the old Freemans Waterhole Oak Milk Bar (renamed Oak Dairy Bar) opened in 1967.
In its heyday, it was a very popular stopover for travellers, providing hot food and fuel plus picnic facilities, barbecues, toilets, bush walking paths and even an information centre.
Not long afterwards, weekend markets came along and a commemorative music shell was erected, followed by a mining museum to highlight the important role played by coal in opening up the Lower Hunter.
Freemans Waterhole dairy bar, with its chequered floor, remains one of the last old-fashioned roadhouses, away from life's hustle and bustle.
Weekender visited it recently in the pouring rain, a sort of trip down memory lane, and came away pleasantly surprised that the unpretentious, old-world charm that provided wonderful memories for so many visitors in the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, remained.
It may have been 40 years since I last visited the place, which is actually much changed.
For example, there's no trace remaining of the once impressive Mineworkers Memorial and mine museum, or the heritage poppet head from West Wallsend, which once towered over the site beside the road. I assume they may have been where the Shell garage is now, beside the Oak bar.
Gone also are the mining machinery exhibits strewn about, or the steam locomotive once set up in the grounds of the mine museum with its special dioramas. Tame wallabies behind enclosures are nowhere to be seen. They all seemed to have gradually disappeared from the early 1990s.
To put things in perspective, today's Freemans Waterhole milk bar (sorry, dairy bar) is promoted by Oak as "the last standing of the iconic Hunter Valley milk bars".
Since 1967, when this western Lake Macquarie site opened, another two famous Oak sites have faded into history. Oak's once legendary Hexham milk bar (below the present bridge) has long vanished. It was well before my time, but I believe Newcastle Harbour's historic 19th-century lifeboat 'Victoria' was once housed undercover by the road here as well.
Motorists also tell me that the equally famous Oak milk bar at Peats Ridge, on the way to Sydney, is also no more, with the site changing hands and now remodelled as a village.
Toronto local Joanne recalls that the Freemans Waterhole Oak had wire fences in the grounds many years ago.
"We used to be able to connect with the outside through an internal cafe door, now closed," Joanne said this week.
"We'd all go out and see a kangaroo or an ostrich. There's nothing now, but the site is very popular these days with bike riders, some even coming regularly from Newcastle."
The erection of the Mineworkers Memorial Music Shell at Freemans Waterhole came after five miners died in a rock fall at Wyee State Mine on October 21, 1966.
It was the worst such disaster in NSW. Calls went out for a suitable memorial for the dead miners, and six years later, the music shell was opened on May 14, 1972.
A mining museum was later added and, according to Lake Macquarie Libraries, labour for the project was all voluntary, with funding coming from mining lodges, mine companies, government grants, the Joint Coal Board and private donations.
The Hunter Valley Dairy Co-operative had agreed to lease land on its Oak Park for the memorial.
A driving force behind both the memorial and museum (opened in 1977) was former colliery carpenter 'Mick' Jurd. He also designed and built nine museum models showing early northern mining operations.
The museum was described as unique, being the only museum in the southern hemisphere to have animated working models dealing exclusively with coal mining. The museum then operated for 14 years.
Unfortunately, with highway trade declining after the freeway opened in 1987, the music shell and octagonal museum sadly became derelict.
The buildings were then reported demolished around 2010.
Although once under threat, the poppet head on the site was saved and gained a new lease of life. It was moved and reassembled at Argenton, behind the Mines Rescue Station. It has been a lake landmark there since 2009.
The poppet head had originally come from West Wallsend Colliery, where it was installed in 1884, standing about 72ft (22 metres) over the site there.
It was claimed to be the first poppet head made of steel in Australia.
IT'S been a long time since this popular west Lake Macquarie area has been called The Gap.
We know it better today as Freemans Waterhole, a rest stop for food and fuel along a busy back road to Sydney.
Not as busy as it once was, of course, when it was a main route down south, but we live in a time of constant change.
It all changed for Freemans Waterhole, famous to motorists for decades for its familiar Oak Milk Bar, after the F3 Freeway (now the M1) was finally completed in 1987.
Now bypassed, trade began to steadily decline despite several attractions, including a music shell added to the still remote area surrounded by Awaba State Forest.
But you've got to say this about the landmark Oak restaurant: it's a survivor.
The first sign of impending change came almost 50 years ago, when Lake Macquarie Council renamed Old Maitland Road (the Gap Road) as Freemans Drive in October 1975.
Freemans Waterhole was the favourite name for this district hub about 12 kilometres west of Toronto, which brought road traffic along Palmers Road to link up with cars coming from both north and south.
Officially, this central site is 40km from Newcastle and also 13km from Cooranbong, 19km from Morisset and 124km from Sydney.
Meanwhile, who exactly were the Freemans?
The region owes its name to its first European settlers, James and Mary Ann Freeman, who sold cattle and lived in a hut near Wyee with their son about 1860.
Just south of The Gap, there was once a small timber settlement called Heatonville, but the name Freemans prevailed.
Now sandwiched between two service stations, the old Freemans Waterhole Oak Milk Bar (renamed Oak Dairy Bar) opened in 1967.
In its heyday, it was a very popular stopover for travellers, providing hot food and fuel plus picnic facilities, barbecues, toilets, bush walking paths and even an information centre.
Not long afterwards, weekend markets came along and a commemorative music shell was erected, followed by a mining museum to highlight the important role played by coal in opening up the Lower Hunter.
Freemans Waterhole dairy bar, with its chequered floor, remains one of the last old-fashioned roadhouses, away from life's hustle and bustle.
Weekender visited it recently in the pouring rain, a sort of trip down memory lane, and came away pleasantly surprised that the unpretentious, old-world charm that provided wonderful memories for so many visitors in the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, remained.
It may have been 40 years since I last visited the place, which is actually much changed.
For example, there's no trace remaining of the once impressive Mineworkers Memorial and mine museum, or the heritage poppet head from West Wallsend, which once towered over the site beside the road. I assume they may have been where the Shell garage is now, beside the Oak bar.
Gone also are the mining machinery exhibits strewn about, or the steam locomotive once set up in the grounds of the mine museum with its special dioramas. Tame wallabies behind enclosures are nowhere to be seen. They all seemed to have gradually disappeared from the early 1990s.
To put things in perspective, today's Freemans Waterhole milk bar (sorry, dairy bar) is promoted by Oak as "the last standing of the iconic Hunter Valley milk bars".
Since 1967, when this western Lake Macquarie site opened, another two famous Oak sites have faded into history. Oak's once legendary Hexham milk bar (below the present bridge) has long vanished. It was well before my time, but I believe Newcastle Harbour's historic 19th-century lifeboat 'Victoria' was once housed undercover by the road here as well.
Motorists also tell me that the equally famous Oak milk bar at Peats Ridge, on the way to Sydney, is also no more, with the site changing hands and now remodelled as a village.
Toronto local Joanne recalls that the Freemans Waterhole Oak had wire fences in the grounds many years ago.
"We used to be able to connect with the outside through an internal cafe door, now closed," Joanne said this week.
"We'd all go out and see a kangaroo or an ostrich. There's nothing now, but the site is very popular these days with bike riders, some even coming regularly from Newcastle."
The erection of the Mineworkers Memorial Music Shell at Freemans Waterhole came after five miners died in a rock fall at Wyee State Mine on October 21, 1966.
It was the worst such disaster in NSW. Calls went out for a suitable memorial for the dead miners, and six years later, the music shell was opened on May 14, 1972.
A mining museum was later added and, according to Lake Macquarie Libraries, labour for the project was all voluntary, with funding coming from mining lodges, mine companies, government grants, the Joint Coal Board and private donations.
The Hunter Valley Dairy Co-operative had agreed to lease land on its Oak Park for the memorial.
A driving force behind both the memorial and museum (opened in 1977) was former colliery carpenter 'Mick' Jurd. He also designed and built nine museum models showing early northern mining operations.
The museum was described as unique, being the only museum in the southern hemisphere to have animated working models dealing exclusively with coal mining. The museum then operated for 14 years.
Unfortunately, with highway trade declining after the freeway opened in 1987, the music shell and octagonal museum sadly became derelict.
The buildings were then reported demolished around 2010.
Although once under threat, the poppet head on the site was saved and gained a new lease of life. It was moved and reassembled at Argenton, behind the Mines Rescue Station. It has been a lake landmark there since 2009.
The poppet head had originally come from West Wallsend Colliery, where it was installed in 1884, standing about 72ft (22 metres) over the site there.
It was claimed to be the first poppet head made of steel in Australia.
IT'S been a long time since this popular west Lake Macquarie area has been called The Gap.
We know it better today as Freemans Waterhole, a rest stop for food and fuel along a busy back road to Sydney.
Not as busy as it once was, of course, when it was a main route down south, but we live in a time of constant change.
It all changed for Freemans Waterhole, famous to motorists for decades for its familiar Oak Milk Bar, after the F3 Freeway (now the M1) was finally completed in 1987.
Now bypassed, trade began to steadily decline despite several attractions, including a music shell added to the still remote area surrounded by Awaba State Forest.
But you've got to say this about the landmark Oak restaurant: it's a survivor.
The first sign of impending change came almost 50 years ago, when Lake Macquarie Council renamed Old Maitland Road (the Gap Road) as Freemans Drive in October 1975.
Freemans Waterhole was the favourite name for this district hub about 12 kilometres west of Toronto, which brought road traffic along Palmers Road to link up with cars coming from both north and south.
Officially, this central site is 40km from Newcastle and also 13km from Cooranbong, 19km from Morisset and 124km from Sydney.
Meanwhile, who exactly were the Freemans?
The region owes its name to its first European settlers, James and Mary Ann Freeman, who sold cattle and lived in a hut near Wyee with their son about 1860.
Just south of The Gap, there was once a small timber settlement called Heatonville, but the name Freemans prevailed.
Now sandwiched between two service stations, the old Freemans Waterhole Oak Milk Bar (renamed Oak Dairy Bar) opened in 1967.
In its heyday, it was a very popular stopover for travellers, providing hot food and fuel plus picnic facilities, barbecues, toilets, bush walking paths and even an information centre.
Not long afterwards, weekend markets came along and a commemorative music shell was erected, followed by a mining museum to highlight the important role played by coal in opening up the Lower Hunter.
Freemans Waterhole dairy bar, with its chequered floor, remains one of the last old-fashioned roadhouses, away from life's hustle and bustle.
Weekender visited it recently in the pouring rain, a sort of trip down memory lane, and came away pleasantly surprised that the unpretentious, old-world charm that provided wonderful memories for so many visitors in the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, remained.
It may have been 40 years since I last visited the place, which is actually much changed.
For example, there's no trace remaining of the once impressive Mineworkers Memorial and mine museum, or the heritage poppet head from West Wallsend, which once towered over the site beside the road. I assume they may have been where the Shell garage is now, beside the Oak bar.
Gone also are the mining machinery exhibits strewn about, or the steam locomotive once set up in the grounds of the mine museum with its special dioramas. Tame wallabies behind enclosures are nowhere to be seen. They all seemed to have gradually disappeared from the early 1990s.
To put things in perspective, today's Freemans Waterhole milk bar (sorry, dairy bar) is promoted by Oak as "the last standing of the iconic Hunter Valley milk bars".
Since 1967, when this western Lake Macquarie site opened, another two famous Oak sites have faded into history. Oak's once legendary Hexham milk bar (below the present bridge) has long vanished. It was well before my time, but I believe Newcastle Harbour's historic 19th-century lifeboat 'Victoria' was once housed undercover by the road here as well.
Motorists also tell me that the equally famous Oak milk bar at Peats Ridge, on the way to Sydney, is also no more, with the site changing hands and now remodelled as a village.
Toronto local Joanne recalls that the Freemans Waterhole Oak had wire fences in the grounds many years ago.
"We used to be able to connect with the outside through an internal cafe door, now closed," Joanne said this week.
"We'd all go out and see a kangaroo or an ostrich. There's nothing now, but the site is very popular these days with bike riders, some even coming regularly from Newcastle."
The erection of the Mineworkers Memorial Music Shell at Freemans Waterhole came after five miners died in a rock fall at Wyee State Mine on October 21, 1966.
It was the worst such disaster in NSW. Calls went out for a suitable memorial for the dead miners, and six years later, the music shell was opened on May 14, 1972.
A mining museum was later added and, according to Lake Macquarie Libraries, labour for the project was all voluntary, with funding coming from mining lodges, mine companies, government grants, the Joint Coal Board and private donations.
The Hunter Valley Dairy Co-operative had agreed to lease land on its Oak Park for the memorial.
A driving force behind both the memorial and museum (opened in 1977) was former colliery carpenter 'Mick' Jurd. He also designed and built nine museum models showing early northern mining operations.
The museum was described as unique, being the only museum in the southern hemisphere to have animated working models dealing exclusively with coal mining. The museum then operated for 14 years.
Unfortunately, with highway trade declining after the freeway opened in 1987, the music shell and octagonal museum sadly became derelict.
The buildings were then reported demolished around 2010.
Although once under threat, the poppet head on the site was saved and gained a new lease of life. It was moved and reassembled at Argenton, behind the Mines Rescue Station. It has been a lake landmark there since 2009.
The poppet head had originally come from West Wallsend Colliery, where it was installed in 1884, standing about 72ft (22 metres) over the site there.
It was claimed to be the first poppet head made of steel in Australia.
IT'S been a long time since this popular west Lake Macquarie area has been called The Gap.
We know it better today as Freemans Waterhole, a rest stop for food and fuel along a busy back road to Sydney.
Not as busy as it once was, of course, when it was a main route down south, but we live in a time of constant change.
It all changed for Freemans Waterhole, famous to motorists for decades for its familiar Oak Milk Bar, after the F3 Freeway (now the M1) was finally completed in 1987.
Now bypassed, trade began to steadily decline despite several attractions, including a music shell added to the still remote area surrounded by Awaba State Forest.
But you've got to say this about the landmark Oak restaurant: it's a survivor.
The first sign of impending change came almost 50 years ago, when Lake Macquarie Council renamed Old Maitland Road (the Gap Road) as Freemans Drive in October 1975.
Freemans Waterhole was the favourite name for this district hub about 12 kilometres west of Toronto, which brought road traffic along Palmers Road to link up with cars coming from both north and south.
Officially, this central site is 40km from Newcastle and also 13km from Cooranbong, 19km from Morisset and 124km from Sydney.
Meanwhile, who exactly were the Freemans?
The region owes its name to its first European settlers, James and Mary Ann Freeman, who sold cattle and lived in a hut near Wyee with their son about 1860.
Just south of The Gap, there was once a small timber settlement called Heatonville, but the name Freemans prevailed.
Now sandwiched between two service stations, the old Freemans Waterhole Oak Milk Bar (renamed Oak Dairy Bar) opened in 1967.
In its heyday, it was a very popular stopover for travellers, providing hot food and fuel plus picnic facilities, barbecues, toilets, bush walking paths and even an information centre.
Not long afterwards, weekend markets came along and a commemorative music shell was erected, followed by a mining museum to highlight the important role played by coal in opening up the Lower Hunter.
Freemans Waterhole dairy bar, with its chequered floor, remains one of the last old-fashioned roadhouses, away from life's hustle and bustle.
Weekender visited it recently in the pouring rain, a sort of trip down memory lane, and came away pleasantly surprised that the unpretentious, old-world charm that provided wonderful memories for so many visitors in the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, remained.
It may have been 40 years since I last visited the place, which is actually much changed.
For example, there's no trace remaining of the once impressive Mineworkers Memorial and mine museum, or the heritage poppet head from West Wallsend, which once towered over the site beside the road. I assume they may have been where the Shell garage is now, beside the Oak bar.
Gone also are the mining machinery exhibits strewn about, or the steam locomotive once set up in the grounds of the mine museum with its special dioramas. Tame wallabies behind enclosures are nowhere to be seen. They all seemed to have gradually disappeared from the early 1990s.
To put things in perspective, today's Freemans Waterhole milk bar (sorry, dairy bar) is promoted by Oak as "the last standing of the iconic Hunter Valley milk bars".
Since 1967, when this western Lake Macquarie site opened, another two famous Oak sites have faded into history. Oak's once legendary Hexham milk bar (below the present bridge) has long vanished. It was well before my time, but I believe Newcastle Harbour's historic 19th-century lifeboat 'Victoria' was once housed undercover by the road here as well.
Motorists also tell me that the equally famous Oak milk bar at Peats Ridge, on the way to Sydney, is also no more, with the site changing hands and now remodelled as a village.
Toronto local Joanne recalls that the Freemans Waterhole Oak had wire fences in the grounds many years ago.
"We used to be able to connect with the outside through an internal cafe door, now closed," Joanne said this week.
"We'd all go out and see a kangaroo or an ostrich. There's nothing now, but the site is very popular these days with bike riders, some even coming regularly from Newcastle."
The erection of the Mineworkers Memorial Music Shell at Freemans Waterhole came after five miners died in a rock fall at Wyee State Mine on October 21, 1966.
It was the worst such disaster in NSW. Calls went out for a suitable memorial for the dead miners, and six years later, the music shell was opened on May 14, 1972.
A mining museum was later added and, according to Lake Macquarie Libraries, labour for the project was all voluntary, with funding coming from mining lodges, mine companies, government grants, the Joint Coal Board and private donations.
The Hunter Valley Dairy Co-operative had agreed to lease land on its Oak Park for the memorial.
A driving force behind both the memorial and museum (opened in 1977) was former colliery carpenter 'Mick' Jurd. He also designed and built nine museum models showing early northern mining operations.
The museum was described as unique, being the only museum in the southern hemisphere to have animated working models dealing exclusively with coal mining. The museum then operated for 14 years.
Unfortunately, with highway trade declining after the freeway opened in 1987, the music shell and octagonal museum sadly became derelict.
The buildings were then reported demolished around 2010.
Although once under threat, the poppet head on the site was saved and gained a new lease of life. It was moved and reassembled at Argenton, behind the Mines Rescue Station. It has been a lake landmark there since 2009.
The poppet head had originally come from West Wallsend Colliery, where it was installed in 1884, standing about 72ft (22 metres) over the site there.
It was claimed to be the first poppet head made of steel in Australia.
