In 1800, Captain William Reid sailed the 30-tonne schooner ‘Martha’ from Sydney to the Hunter River on a mission to collect coal.
Not going far enough north, he sailed into Lake Macquarie and accidentally became the first European person to visit the area.
For many years the lake was known as Reid’s Mistake after his fortuitous error.
Around 1826 it was renamed after Governor Lachlan Macquarie.