Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas.[2] It is the hub of the Greater Newcastle area which includes most parts of the Local Government Areas of City of Newcastle, City of Lake Macquarie, City of Cessnock, City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council.[3][4]
Situated 162 kilometres (101 mi) NNE of Sydney, at the mouth of the Hunter River, it is the predominant city within the Hunter Region. Famous for its coal, Newcastle is the largest coal export harbour in the world, exporting 88,880,000 tonnes (87,480,000 LT; 97,970,000 ST) of coal in 2007-2008.[5] Beyond the city the Hunter Region boasts massive coal deposits.
History
Pre-European settlement
Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by the Awabakal and Worimi Aboriginal People.[6]
Founding and settlement by Europeans
The first European to explore the area was Lt. John Shortland in September 1797. His discovery of the area was largely accidental; as Shortland had been sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized the HMS Cumberland as she was sailing from Sydney Cove.[7]
While returning he entered what he later described as "a very fine river", which he named after New South Wales' Governor, John Hunter.[8] Shortland also returned with reports of the deep-water port and abundant coal in the area. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export.[8]
Newcastle gained a reputation as a "hellhole" as it was a place where the most dangerous convicts were sent to dig in the coal mines as harsh punishment for their crimes.[8]
By the turn of the century the mouth of the Hunter River was being visited by diverse groups of men, including coal hewers, timber-cutters, and more escaped convicts. Philip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales from 1800, decided on a more positive approach to exploit the now obvious natural resources of the Hunter Valley.[7]
In 1801, a convict camp called King's Town (named after Governor King) was established to mine the coal and cut timber. In the same year, the first shipment of coal was dispatched to Sydney. This settlement closed less than a year later.[8]
A settlement was again attempted in 1804 as a place of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. The settlement was named Coal River, also Kingstown and then re-named Newcastle, after England's famous coal port. The name first appeared by the commission issued by Governor King on 15 March 1804 to Lieut. Charles Menzies of the Royal Marines, appointing him superintendent of the new settlement.[9]
The new settlement comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804, in three ships, the Lady Nelson, the Resource and the James.[10][7] The convicts were rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion.
The link with Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, its namesake and also from whence many of the 19th century coal miners came, is still obvious in some of the place-names - such as Jesmond, Hexham, Wickham, Wallsend and Gateshead. Morpeth, New South Wales is a similar distance north of Newcastle as Morpeth, Northumberland is north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Under Captain James Wallis, commandant from 1815 to 1818, the convicts' conditions improved, and a building boom began. Captain Wallis laid out the streets of the town, built the first church of the site of the present Christ Church Anglican Cathedral, erected the old gaol on the seashore, and began work on the breakwater which now joins Nobbys Head to the mainland. The quality of these first buildings was poor and only (a much reinforced) breakwater survives. During this period, in 1816, the oldest public school in Australia was built in East Newcastle.[8]
Newcastle remained a penal settlement until 1822 when the settlement was opened up to farming.[11] During its time as a penal colony the military rule was harsh, especially at Limeburners' Bay, on the inner side of Stockton peninsula, where convicts were sent to burn oyster shells for making lime.[7]
Military rule in Newcastle ended in 1823. The number of prisoners was reduced to 100 (most of these were employed on the building of the breakwater), and the remaining 900 were sent to Port Macquarie.[8]
Civilian government
After removal of the last convicts in 1823 the town was freed from the infamous influence of the penal law and began to acquire the aspect of a typical Australian pioneer settlement, and a steady flow of free settlers poured into the hinterland.
Early steamers
The formation during the nineteenth century of the Newcastle and Hunter River Steamship Company[12] saw the establishment of regular steamship services from Morpeth and Newcastle with Sydney. The company had a fleet of freighters as well as several fast passenger vessels, including the PS Newcastle and the PS Namoi. The latter vessel's first-class cabins had the latest facilities and overnight passage to Sydney, where passengers would arrive fresh for the new day, was considered preferable to the long and arduous railway journey right into the inter-war period.[citation needed]
Because of the coal supply, small ships plied between Newcastle and Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, carrying coal to gas works and bunkers for shipping, and railways. These were commonly known as "sixty-milers" based on the nautical journey between Newcastle and Sydney, and continued in service until recent times.[13][14]
World War II
During the Second World War, Newcastle was an important industrial centre for the Australian war effort. Consequently, it was considered to be a potential Japanese target during the Second World War.[citation needed]
In the early hours of 8 June 1942, the Japanese submarine I-21 briefly shelled Newcastle. Among the areas hit within the city were dockyards, the steel works, Parnell Place in the city's now affluent East End, the breakwall and Art Deco ocean baths. There were no casualties in the attack and damage was minimal.[citation needed]
Economic history
Coal
Coal mining began in earnest in the 1830s, with collieries working close to the city itself and others within a 16 km (10 mi) radius.[citation needed] Most of Newcastle's principal coal mines (Stockton, Tighes Hill, Carrington, the Australian Agricultural Company, the Newcastle Coal Mining company's big collieries at Merewether (includes the Glebe), Wallsend, and the Waratah collieries), had all closed by the early 1960s, being steadily replaced over the previous four decades by the larger coal mining activities further inland at places such as Kurri Kurri and Cessnock.[citation needed]
On 10 December 1831, the Australian Agricultural Company officially opened Australia's first railway to carry export coal from near the Anglican Cathedral at Newcastle to the wharf area.[15]
Copper
About 1850, a major copper smelting works was established at Burwood, near Merewether, (now a suburb), an engraving of which appeared in the Illustrated London News on 11 February 1854.[citation needed] The English and Australian Copper Company built another substantial works at Broadmeadow circa 1890, and in that decade a zinc smelter was built inland, by Cockle Creek.
Soap
The largest factory of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere was constructed in 1885, on a 8.9 ha (22-acre) site between the suburbs of Tighes Hill and Port Waratah, by Charles Upfold, from London, for his Sydney Soap and Candle Company, to replace a smaller factory in Wickham.[16] Their soap products won 17 medals at International Exhibitions, and at the Sydney International Exhibition they won a bronze medal "against all-comers from every part of the world", the only first prize awarded for soap and candles. Following World War I the company was sold to Messrs Lever & Kitchen (today Lever Bros), and the factory closed in the mid-1930s.
Steel
In 1911, BHP chose the city as the site for its steelworks due to the abundance of coal.[8] The land put aside was prime real estate, on the southern edge of the harbour. In 1915, the BHP steelworks opened, beginning a period of some 80 years dominating the steel works and heavy industry. As Mayfield and the suburbs surrounding the steelworks declined in popularity because of pollution, the steelworks thrived, becoming the region's largest employer.
In 1999, the steelworks closed after 84 years operation and had employed about 50,000 in its existence, many for decades
