Newcastle

Newcastle runs one of the largest coal harbours on Earth, and a few minutes from the ships, people are doing laps in some of the best ocean pools in the country. Merewether Ocean Baths is the largest ocean pool complex in the Southern Hemisphere, and the Bogey Hole nearby, hand-cut by convicts in the 1820s, is older than any of them. Walk the clifftop path to Nobbys Beach and its lighthouse. Fort Scratchley stands guard nearby, the only place on the Australian mainland to exchange fire with a Japanese submarine. Even the industry here comes with a view.