Newcastle East is an inner city suburb of Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, located immediately east of Newcastle's central business district

Central business district

A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...

 at the mouth of the Hunter River. The suburb includes Fort Scratchley, Newcastle Ocean Baths and Newcastle Beach. Formerly a site of heavy industry and railway yards, the suburb now contains the large Forehore Park, and historic terraced housing.

Beaches

Newcastle East is home to two of Newcastle's beaches, Nobbys Beach and Newcastle Beach, both of which have surf lifesaving clubs and are patrolled by lifesavers. In June 2007, the bulk carrier MV Pasha Bulker

MV Pasha Bulker

The MV Pasha Bulker is a Panamax bulk carrier of operated by the Lauritzen Bulkers Shipping company and owned by Japanese Disponent Owners. While waiting in the open ocean outside the harbour to load coal the Pasha Bulker ran aground during a major storm on 8 June 2007 on Nobbys Beach in...

 grounded itself off Nobbys Beach in a storm. Between Newcastle and Nobbys beaches lie the Newcastle Ocean Baths.

Fort Scratchley

Fort Scratchley is a fort atop a knoll overlooking Nobbys Beach. It was designed by Lt. Col. Peter Scratchley and built between 1881 and 1886. While its original purpose was to protect the colony against a feared Russian invasion, its most prominent role came during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 when the guns at the fort fired upon a Japanese submarine

Imperial Japanese Navy

The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...

 which shelled the city in 1942

Attack on Sydney Harbour

In late May and early June 1942, during World War II, submarines belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy made a series of attacks on the cities of Sydney and Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia...

. The military role of the fort came to an end in 1972 and it now houses the Newcastle Region Maritime and Military Museum.