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. 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.
Situated 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 presently the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, exporting over 97 Mt of coal in 2009–10 with plans to expand annual capacity to 180 Mt by 2013. Beyond the city, the Hunter Region possesses large coal deposits.
History
Pre-European settlement
Newcastle and the lower
Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by the
Awabakal and
Worimi Aboriginal People, who called the area Malubimba.
Founding and settlement by Europeans
The first European to explore the area was Lieutenant
John Shortland in September 1797. His discovery of the area was largely accidental; as he had been sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized the
HMS Cumberland as she was sailing from
Sydney Cove.
While returning, Lt. Shortland entered what he later described as "a very fine river", which he named after New South Wales' Governor, John Hunter. He returned with reports of the deep-water port and the area's abundant coal. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export.
The new settlement, comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804 in three ships: , the Resource and the James. 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.
dominates the skyline of Newcastle.]]
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. As a penal colony, the military rule was harsh, especially at Limeburners' Bay, on the inner side of Stockton peninsula. There, convicts were sent to burn oyster shells for making lime. 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 Namoi had first-class cabins with the latest facilities.
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", referring to the nautical journey between Newcastle and Sydney. These ships continued in service until recent times.
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.
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.
Economy
19th and early 20th Century
;Coal
Coal mining began in earnest in the 1830s, with collieries working close to the city itself and others within a radius. 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. They had been replaced over four decades by the larger coal mining activities further inland at places such as
Kurri Kurri and
Cessnock.
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.
;Copper
In the 1850s, a major copper smelting works was established at Burwood, near Merewether. An engraving of this appeared in the Illustrated London News on 11 February 1854. 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 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. Their soap products won 17 medals at International Exhibitions. 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. As Australia recovered from the early 1990s recession, the economy of Newcastle did too and the jobless rate rapidly fell however it consistently remained substantially above that of NSW.
In 1999, the steelworks closed after 84 years operation and had employed about 50,000 in its existence, many for decades. The closure of the BHP steelworks occurred at a time of strong economic expansion in Australia. At the time of the closure and since the closure Newcastle experienced a significant amount of economic diversification which has strengthened the local economy. Despite this, the closure caused a deterioration of the employment situation in Newcastle where the unemployment rate rose rapidly to almost 12% from under 9% at the previous trough just prior to the closure.
Since 2003, Australia experienced the effects of the 2000s commodities boom as commodities prices for major export good such as coal and iron ore rose significantly. This provided a large incentive for investment in the Newcastle and Hunter region due to its status as a major coal mining and export hub to Asian markets. Large projects related to the coal industry helped to propel the Newcastle unemployment rate to 20 year lows and allow the Newcastle region to weather the effects of the late 2000s recession better than NSW as a whole.
As of 2009 the two largest single employers are the Hunter New England Area Health Service and the University of Newcastle. The Hunter and Central Coast regions were declared natural disaster areas by the state Premier, Mr Morris Iemma, on 8 June 2007 . Further flooding was predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology but was less severe than predicted.
During the early stages of the storms the long bulk carrier ship, MV Pasha Bulker, ran aground at Nobby's Beach after failing to heed warnings to move offshore. The Pasha Bulker was finally refloated on the third salvage attempt on 2 July 2007 despite earlier fears that the ship would break up. After initially entering the port for minor repairs it departed for major repairs in Asia under tow on 26 July 2007.
Maritime
The most tragic maritime accident of the twentieth-century in Newcastle occurred on 9 August 1934 when the Stockton-bound ferry
Bluebell collided with the coastal freighter,
Waraneen, and sank in the middle of the Hunter River.
The Bluebell Collision claimed three lives and fifteen passengers were admitted to the
Newcastle Hospital, with two suffering severely from the effects of immersion. It was later found that the ferry captain was at fault.
The tragedy was but only one chapter in Newcastle's very long history of shipwrecks including the tragic sinking of the SS Cawarra in 1866 that claimed sixty lives, the 1974 beaching of the Sygna, and the 2007 beaching of the MV Pasha Bulker.
Aviation
On 16 August 1966, an
RAAF CAC Sabre crashed into the inner city suburb of
The Junction. The pilot, Flying Officer Warren William Goddard, experienced engine troubles and unsuccessfully tried to get the plane over the Pacific Ocean. The Junction is a highly populated suburb of Newcastle and most of the plane wreckage landed in the shopping area of the suburb. In 2007 a memorial plaque was unveiled for the killed pilot.
|date=August 2010
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Demographics
The metropolitan area of Newcastle is the second most populous area in New South Wales, and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie local government areas as well as
Fern Bay, a southern suburb of Port Stephens Council.
Newcastle is often quoted as being the seventh largest city in Australia. This is misleading as the area represented extends well beyond both the City of Newcastle and the Newcastle metropolitan area. The area, officially the Newcastle Statistical District, is referred to as Greater Newcastle or the Lower Hunter Region, which includes most parts of the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Cessnock, Maitland and Port Stephens local government areas and, as of 30 June 2009, has an estimated population of 540,796. Despite their proximity, all of the LGAs in the region maintain their own individual identities, separate from Newcastle. Newcastle remains the regional hub for most services.
Modern times
The Port of Newcastle remains the economic and trade centre for the resource rich
Hunter Valley and for much of the north and northwest of New South Wales. Newcastle is the world's largest coal export port and Australia's oldest and second largest tonnage throughput port, with over 3,000 shipping movements handling cargo of 95.8 Mt per annum, of which coal exports represented 90.8 Mt in 2008–09. The volume of coal exported, and attempts to increase coal exports, are opposed by environmental groups.
Newcastle has a small shipbuilding industry, which has declined since the 1970s. In recent years the only major ship-construction contract awarded to the area was the construction of the
Huon class minehunters.
The era of extensive heavy industry passed when the steel works closed in 1999. Many of the remaining manufacturing industries have located themselves well away from the city itself.
Newcastle has one of the oldest theatre districts in Australia. Victoria Theatre on Perkins Street is the oldest purpose-built theatre in the country. The theatre district that occupied the area around what is now the Hunter Street Mall vanished during the 1940s.
buses have replaced the trams.]]
The old city centre has seen some new apartments and hotels built in recent years, but the rate of commercial and retail occupation remains low while alternate suburban centres have become more important. The CBD itself is shifting to the west, towards the major urban renewal area known as "Honeysuckle". This renewal, to run for another 10 years, is a major part of arresting the shift of business and residents to the suburbs.
Commercial renewal has been accompanied by cultural renaissance. There is a vibrant arts scene in the city including a highly regarded art gallery, and an active Hunter Writers' Centre . Recent fictional representations (for example Antoinette Eklund's 'Steel River' See http://www.scholarly.info/fiction.htm) present a new vision of the city, using the city's historic past as a backdrop for contemporary fiction.
The old central business district, located at Newcastle's eastern end, still has a considerable number of historic buildings, dominated by Christ Church Cathedral, seat of the Anglican Bishop of Newcastle. Other noteworthy buildings include Fort Scratchley, the Ocean Baths, the old Customs House, the 1920s City Hall, the 1890s Longworth Institute (once regarded as the finest building in the colony) and the 1930s art deco University House (formerly NESCA House, recently seen in the film Superman Returns). Residents of Newcastle refer to themselves as "Novocastrians".
Domestic architecture
A heritage area to the east of the Central Business District, centred around Christ Church Cathedral, has many fine Victorian terrace houses.
Education
The
University of Newcastle (formerly established in 1951 as part of the
University of New South Wales) obtained autonomy in 1965 and offers over 150 undergraduate and graduate courses to a student population of more than 32,000, including 7,300 international students from more than 80 countries.
There are three selective schools in the region.
Hunter School of the Performing Arts is a fully selective performing arts K-12 public school. Acceptance into the school is by audition.
Merewether High School is a fully selective academic high school for years 7–12. A test is used for acceptance. Finally,
Hunter Sports High is a partially selective sporting high school. The school accepts around half its students from the local area and around half by audition.
Culture
Festivals
Newcastle holds a variety of cultural events and festivals.
The Newcastle Regional Show is held in the Newcastle Showground annually. There are a mixture of typical regional show elements such as woodchopping displays, showbags, rides and stalls and usually fireworks to complement the events in the main arena.
The Mattara festival, founded in 1961, is the official festival of Newcastle with a more traditional 'country fair' type program that combines a parade, rides, sporting events, band competitions and portrait and landscape painting exhibitions.
The Newcastle Jazz Festival is held across three days in August, and attracts performers and audiences from all over Australia.
The Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival, first started in Newcastle in 1999. This is the film festival where film-makers come together in one place to make a short film in 24 hours. It is run annually in July.
This Is Not Art is a national festival of new media and arts held in Newcastle each year over the October long weekend. Since its humble beginnings in 1998, it has become one of the leading arts festivals in Australia dedicated to the work and ideas of communities not included in other major Australian arts festivals. The umbrella program includes the independent festivals Electrofringe, the National Young Writers' Festival, Critical Animals, Sound Summit, Crack Theatre Festival and other projects that vary from year to year.
The Newcastle Entertainment Centre, located inside the Newcastle Showground is a popular venue for regular events including wrestling, concerts and monster truck shows.
Music
Newcastle has an active youth music culture, as well as a Conservatorium of Music which is part of the
University of Newcastle. It continues to support local bands and has a large underground music scene.
Silverchair, the highly successful Australian band, hail from Newcastle, as does the Australian band
The Screaming Jets. It has a fertile
punk rock and hardcore scene, and over the past 15 years has spawned many successful local acts, including large local and National bands such as Sleight of Hand and Kindred.
Visual arts and galleries
Noted Australian artists
John Olsen, Margaret Olley and
William Dobell once lived in Newcastle and today the city Newcastle is home to a wide range of public, commercial and private galleries. The stadium is the only sports venue of its class in New South Wales that is north of Sydney.
Soccer
The
Newcastle United Jets soccer team, which plays in Australia's highest level competition, the
A-League, also play at EnergyAustralia Stadium. The Newcastle United Jets won the A-league competition in their third season, defeating local rivals the
Central Coast Mariners FC in the grand final. The Jets are currently playing in the 2010/11 A-League season, and their tenth in the Australian National Competition.
Water sports
Newcastle has an abundance of beaches and surf breaks for which the city is internationally well known. Newcastle hosts the annual surfing contest '
Surfest' on the world professional surfing tour. Four time world champion surfer
Mark Richards grew up surfing at Newcastle's Merewether Beach, and is a local icon, appearing at many local functions, and supporting local charities. Nobbys Beach is a very popular
kitesurfing spot, especially during the warm summer months when there are northeasterly sea breezes.
Media
Newcastle is served by a daily
tabloid,
The Herald (formerly
The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate and then
The Newcastle Herald), several weeklies including the
Newcastle Star,
The Post and the bi-monthly
The Hunter Advocate.
Other alternative media in the city include the university's student publication Opus, and Urchin (a zine published by the media and arts organisation Octapod).
The city is also served by several local radio stations, including those owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and SBS.
AM stations
*2HD (commercial)1143 AM
*1233 ABC Newcastle (ABC Local Radio)
*2HRN (off band commercial) 1629 AM
FM stations
*KOFM (commercial) 102.9
*NXFM (commercial) 106.9
*New FM (commercial) 105.3
*2NUR (community) 103.7
*Rhema FM 99.7 Newcastle (Christian) 99.7
Government broadcasters
*Australian Broadcasting Corporation
**1233 ABC Newcastle AM local radio 1233 AM
**ABC Radio National 1512 AM
**ABC News Radio 1458 AM
**Triple J (youth station) 102.1 FM
**ABC Classic FM (classical music) 106.1 FM
*SBS Radio (foreign language service) 1413 AM
Other stations
*2KY Racing Radio (as part of state-wide network) 1341 AM
Newcastle is also served by 5 television networks, three commercial and two national services (which include new sub-channels that started in 2009 for the commercial networks and in recent years from the national services). These new channels are available on digital TV only. These networks are listed as follows:
NBN Television, GEM HD (digital only) and the GO! channel (digital only) : (Nine Network affiliate, incumbent station, (NBN TV) established 1962).
Southern Cross Ten, One HD (digital only) and Eleven (digital only) : (Network Ten affiliate, Southern Cross Ten (formerly known as TEN Northern N.S.W. and NRTV) was established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991).
Prime7, 7Two (digital only) and 7mate (digital only) : (Seven Network affiliate, (Prime7) was established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991).
ABC Television including ABC1, ABC2 (digital only), ABC3 (digital only) and ABC News 24 is owned by the government. The ABC TV service was established in the 1960s.
SBS Television including SBS ONE and SBS Two (digital only) is owned by the government. This service was introduced in the 1980s.
NBN Television produces an evening news bulletin combining local, state, national and international news screening nightly at 6.00pm.
Subscription Television service Foxtel is also available via satellite.
Transport
Like most major cities, the Newcastle metropolitan area has an extensive system of both road links and road based public transport services (bus, taxi etc.) which cover most areas of both
Newcastle and
Lake Macquarie and which extend beyond the metropolitan area itself. Rail transport, however, is accessible to only a relatively small percentage of the population along the major rail transport routes and ferry services are restricted to those commuting between Newcastle and
Stockton. Within the metropolitan area the car remains the dominant form of transportation. At the time of the 2001 Census, less than 4% of the population caught public transport, of which around 2.5% travelled by bus and 1% used the train or ferry to commute to work. On the other hand, over 72% of the population travelled by car to and from work. Newcastle, like all major Australian urban centres, had a
tram system, but it was closed in 1950.
Road
Newcastle is connected to surrounding cities by the
Sydney-Newcastle Freeway (South),
New England Highway (West) and the
Pacific Highway (North).
Hunter Street, the main shopping street in the Newcastle CBD, is the major link to the
Pacific Highway from the CBD.
Bus
Bus services within Newcastle are operated by Newcastle Buses & Ferries, a subsidiary of the
State Transit Authority of New South Wales. Trips within a designated area of the Newcastle CBD on State Transit-operated bus services are fare-free under the Newcastle Alliance's Free City Buses programme.
The network radiates from a bus terminal near CityRail's Newcastle station, on the waterfront of Newcastle's CBD. Major interchanges are located at the University of Newcastle, Wallsend, Glendale, Warners Bay, Belmont, Charlestown, Westfield Kotara and Broadmeadow Station.
Rail
Newcastle is serviced by two
CityRail lines providing local and regional commuter services. The Newcastle & Central Coast Line has hourly train services to Sydney and more frequent services to the
Central Coast. The Hunter Line has twice-hourly services to
Maitland and less frequently to
Scone and
Dungog.
Countrylink (an intercity/interstate rail service) operate two lines through the Newcastle area using Broadmeadow Station. These provide services to
Moree,
Armidale,
Brisbane and Sydney.
Newcastle once had rail passenger services to Belmont and Toronto, on Lake Macquarie, Wallsend, Kurri Kurri and several towns and villages between Maitland and Cessnock, but these lines have today been closed. Since the late 1990s, there had been intense debate about the viability of the rail line into central Newcastle. The New South Wales government had planned to cut the line at Broadmeadow, ceasing rail services into the city and to sell the land where the railway ran for development. The state government has subsequently decided against this decision.
Water
The Port of Newcastle is crucial to the economic life of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley region beyond. Over 90 million tonnes of coal is shipped through the facility each year – making it the largest coal exporting port in the world. The Port of Newcastle claims to be Australia's first port. Coal was first exported from the harbour in 1799.
Newcastle Buses & Ferries operates a ferry service across the Hunter River between Newcastle's CBD and Stockton.
Air
Newcastle Airport is located north of the Newcastle CBD ( by road). The airport, which is a joint venture between
Newcastle City Council and
Port Stephens Council, has experienced rapid growth since 2000 as a result of an increase in
low cost airline operations. The airport is located at
RAAF Base Williamtown, a
Royal Australian Air Force base on land leased from the
Department of Defence. Newcastle Heliport operates alongside the lower section of Newcastle Harbour.
The suburb of Broadmeadow is home to the base of the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service. The Helicopter service is one of the longest running services of this type in the world. Two helicopters operate out of this base and operate 24 hours a day.
The closure of Belmont Airport, commonly referred to as Aeropelican, in the Lake Macquarie suburb of Marks Point has caused Williamtown to become Newcastle's only major airport and residents in the south of the Newcastle metropolitan area must commute up to by car to reach Williamtown.
See also
Crime in Newcastle
List of suburbs in Greater Newcastle
Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union
Newcastle Grammar School
Newcastle High School
Merewether High School
References
Docherty, James Cairns, Newcastle – The Making of an Australian City, Sydney, 1983, ISBN 0-86806-034-8
Susan Marsden, Coals to Newcastle: a History of Coal Loading at the Port of Newcastle New South Wales 1977–1997 2002
Marsden, Susan, Newcastle: a Brief History Newcastle, 2004 ISBN 0-949579-17-3
Marsden, Susan, 'Waterfront alive: life on the waterfront', in C Hunter, ed, River Change: six new histories of the Hunter, Newcastle, 1998 ISBN 0-909115-70-2
Greater Newcastle City Council, Newcastle 150 Years, 1947.
Thorne, Ross, Picture Palace Architecture in Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, 1976 (P/B), ISBN 0-7251-0226-8
Turner, Dr. John W., Manufacturing in Newcastle, Newcastle, 1980, ISBN 0-9599385-7-5
Morrison James, Ron, Newcastle – Times Past, Newcastle, 2005 (P/B), ISBN 0-9757693-0-8
External links
Newcastle City Council
Newcastle Visitor Centre
Newcastle Beaches Guide
Newcastle Region Art Gallery
Category:Coastal cities in Australia
*
Category:Populated places established in 1797
Category:Port cities in Australia
Category:Suburbs of Newcastle, New South Wales
Category:1804 establishments in Australia
