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Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie

The First Gallery Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie

Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie

The Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie, formerly known as Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, was established in 1980. First housed in Lake Macquarie’s former council chambers on Main Road at Speers Point, the gallery relocated to First Street, Booragul in 1996.

The gallery originally occupied Awaba House on this site from 1996 to 2000 when a decision was made to construct the new state-of-the-art facility. At the time we visited there had been a fire and Awaba House had been extensively damaged. Launched in May 2001 the new art gallery building saw the addition of an art seminar room in 2008. In 2019, a further expansion provided additional gallery space.

Entrance to MAC
Entrance to Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie

How to Get There

Located at First Street, Booragul, the gallery overlooks Lake Macquarie, providing great views in a relaxing setting. A small car park next to the gallery is convenient, however, if this is full more is available on-street nearby.

Sculpture Park

Located on 5 hectares between the gallery and lakeshore, the Sculpture Park includes work by local and national artists. Launched in 1996, the sculpture park has continued to develop and currently comprises 16 sculptures by 11 artists.

We spent some time walking around the sculptures before entering the gallery.

Museum of Art and Culture Lake Macquarie Collection

Comprised of four focus areas, the Visual Arts Collection includes works by highly-regarded national, international and Hunter-based artists.

The collection has a core group of works by established contemporary Australian artists. This includes a number of works by Sir William Dobell, large-scale contemporary sculptures and Indigenous works.

We loved walking around the gallery, because it has great diversity for such a small venue. We found it had a lot to offer and enjoyed our time there. With works ranging from Sir William Dobell to contemporary artists, the collection is worth the visit.

Coffee Shop

Sculpture Cafe is a licensed venue and offers morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea. Seating is both inside and on the deck overlooking the Sculpture Park and the lake. We enjoyed morning tea on the deck because of the wonderful views.

View From the Cafe
View From the Cafe

What Did We Think?

We enjoyed our visit because of the diverse range of art on display. The outdoor park was fun to walk around, while the quality works inside were amazing. To add to this was the wonderful location of the coffee shop with its great views.

Beautiful Wangi Point Circuit Track

Lake Macquarie

Wangi Point Circuit Walking Track

Located on the western shore of Lake Macquarie, the Wangi Point Circuit Walking Track is a great walk through Australian coastal bushland. This 1.8km loop takes about 45 minutes to walk, but took us longer as we took in the wonderful views over the lake. The track is well formed and easy to walk, unless you decide to take some of the offshoots. These can lead down to the lakeshore, and can be steep and rocky, but provide amazing views of the coast and waterways.

Parking

A small parking area on Reserve Road, provides a small area for a limited number of cars. No facilities are provided, so you will need to be prepared before you arrive here. A large map next to the parking area provides directions to the walks in the area and typical walking times.

Wildlife

During our walk, we saw seagulls and cormorants, but white-faced herons and white-breasted sea eagles also live in the area. Other walkers we passed said they saw a seal on one of the rocky beaches, but it was gone when we arrived.

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Long Jetty on the Central Coast

Long Jetty

Located next to The Entrance on the Central Coast, Long Jetty is a quiet coastal spot with some great scenery to enjoy. We found parking easy all along the foreshore but, imagine it would be busy during holiday periods.

Our first stop was Toowoon Beach for a coffee overlooking the beach while we relaxed after our drive. Sitting and looking over the water while drinking the coffee was very relaxing after the drive.

After this we drove to Long Beach where we parked the car and walked along the foreshore. There are thee jetties of varying lengths going into the lake. We walked out on the two largest ones for some great views and photos. The length of the jetties is deceptive and you don’t realize how long they are until you reach the end and look back.

There are several grassed areas with picnic facilities and families were using them. Along with the play equipment here it looked like a great place for kids.

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