Historical Newcastle

0: Newcastle Market Square

1: Disused Railway Reservation

2: Hunter Street Newcastle

Hunter Street Newcastle: Wikipedia Article

3: The Old Newcastle Club, now Newcastle YHA

The Newcastle Beach Youth Hostel was once the Newcastle Club, a gentlemen's club which moved in the early 20th century to premises adjacent to the Cathedral.

4: Newcastle Post Office, 1900

From Flickr feed of:
Cultural Collections University of Newcastle

5: The Victoria Theatre

The Victoria Theatre is the oldest theatre still standing in New South Wales.
See full Wikipedia Entry
See Heritage Listing


Image Copyright: Public Domain (Wikipedia)

6: Newcastle City Hall: Norm Barney Photographic Collection

Newcastle Town Hall (n.d.)
Norm Barney Photographic Collection
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections

• The Flickr page for this photograph
• University of Newcastle Cultural Collections Flickr Photostream
  

7: Coutts Sailors' Home

The Coutts Sailors' Home is in Bond Street Newcastle and is currently under redevelopment. The heritage listing for this important site can be found here.


Coutts' Sailors' Home
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections: Bert Lovett Collection/Norm Barney  Photographic Collection

Statement of Significance (from the Heritage Listing)
"The former Coutts Sailors' Home site is historically significant at a state and possibly national level as it is associated with several important phases of human activity and occupation in Newcastle's, NSW's and Australia's history, including the convict era, maritime activities, health care, government administration and community welfare. The site is chiefly significant for its role as a Sailors' Home, reflecting the importance of Newcastle's maritime history and representing an international benevolent movement concerned with the welfare of seamen in British ports throughout the world that developed in the 1860s. Established in 1882 through private and public philanthropic efforts, Coutts Sailors' Home was the only other such institution established outside Sydney, making it rare in NSW and possibly Australia and reflecting Newcastle's status as a major national and international port and also the esteem with which sailors and seamen were held by the community at a time when shipping was crucial to international trade and communication. Newcastle's development as a port has shaped much of its economic and social history. The Sailors' Home is one of several buildings in the Newcastle East precinct, including the Customs House, which reflect the historic links that the area has with maritime activities. The site has been associated with a number of individuals of significance to Newcastle, NSW and Australia including founder, Reverend James Coutts; architects George Brown and Frederick Menkens; and Sister Elizabeth Kenny. Part of the site once formed part of the convict lumber yard, a site of key importance to the local economy and representative of Newcastle's early history as a penal settlement. The possibility of archaeological evidence existing from this period of occupation as well as the buildings' ability to demonstrate something of the design layout and construction methods associated with the buildings' functions over time also contributes to its high degree of research significance. At a local level, the buildings are aesthetically significant as one of the largest and most intact examples of the Victorian Italianate architectural style in this part of Newcastle".

• The Flickr page for this photograph
• University of Newcastle Cultural Collections Flickr Photostream

8: Christchurch Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of Christ the King is the largest provincial cathedral in Australia. It is considered one of the best works by noted Architect John Horbury Hunt.

9: The Newcastle Club

The Newcastle Club is a gentlemen's club in a prominent position adjacent to the Cathedral Church of Christ the King. The group of buildings is significant, comprising the club premises, which date to the 1920s as well as an adjoining property "Claremont", which is earlier.

The Newcastle Club
(Image from Heritage Listing)

Claremont (Image from Heritage Listing)

Statement of Significance
(Drawn from Heritage Listing)
The Newcastle Club is of outstanding historical, associative and aesthetic significance to the state. The site as a whole, encompassing the former residence, 'Claremont' has been associated with some of the most prominent members of the business, industrial and professional community in the city and state, including former managers of the A A Company, an organisation of utmost importance in the history of Newcastle, NSW and Australia. With its prominent siting, high on the hill overlooking the city, the club is a landmark site and makes an imposing and impressive contribution to the street and townscape. Its interior detailing, which exhibits the finest quality materials, design and craftsmanship, as well as the considerable collection of moveable heritage housed within the building, also represents the tastes and philosophies associated with the British tradition of 'gentlemen's clubs' of the late nineteenth century. The Newcastle Club clearly articulates the wealth, status, power and outlook of those associated with it; and makes a powerful statement regarding Newcastle's emergent confidence, economic importance and place in the state and nation, particularly from the nineteenth to early twentieth century. The existing buildings and remains of earlier structures that may still exist on the site provide a rare archaeological resource that could shed further light on social and domestic life and building techniques from the 1840s to the present. The site as a whole is unique in the Newcastle area and its level of intact detail, scale and grandeur makes it one of NSW's and Australia's finest club premises.
Refer to full Heritage Listing

10: Former Military Barracks

Now part of Fletcher Hospital, these military barracks were established on this site in 1840

11: Australian Agricultural Co. 'A' Pit

This is the site of the Australian Agricultural Company's 'A' Pit, one of the earliest commerical collieries in Australia

12: Newcastle Police Station

Newcastle Police Station
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections: Bert Lovett Collection: Norm Barney Photographic Collection.

Link to this photograph's Flickr Page

13: Newcastle Police Station and Lock-Up

The former police station and lockup on Hunter Street is an important building designed by noted colonial architect Mortimer Lewis.

It now serves as a cultural centre, gallery and Museum.

Statement of Significance
(from Heritage Listing)

The former Police Station and Lock-up is historically significant at a state level for its ability to demonstrate aspects of the administration of law and order and the evolution of those practices across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its current use as a museum and heritage centre, with its well-preserved internal spaces of the lock-up and interpretive material enhances its capacity to demonstrate conditions and philosophies associated with the policing and holding of prisoners. It has associative significance at a state level, representing the work of some of the state's most important Colonial Architects - Alexander Dawson, James Barnet and Walter Liberty Vernon as well as Mortimer Lewis Jr. It is also part of a precinct representing the works of some of the most important Colonial Architects in NSW. The former Police Station makes a substantial contribution to this group of nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings, including the former Electric Telegraph Office, the Public Works Department building and Post Office, comprising an entire block on the northern side of Hunter Street, which form an outstanding Victorian streetscape and some of the most important public buildings in Newcastle. The survival of this building within its intact setting contributes to its rarity and significance as part of a group that is considered to be one of the most important in NSW outside the Sydney metropolitan area for their historical and aesthetic attributes.

• Link to this building's full heritage listing

14: Courthouse

Old Courthouse, Bolton  and Hunter Streets
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections

Link to this photograph's Flickr Page

15: Australian Agricultural Company Headquarters

This cottage, currenly occupied by Fanny's Nightclub, was once the Australian Agricultural Company's Headquarters in Newcastle.

16: Newcastle Methodist Central Mission

Laying of the Foundation Stone of the Methodist Central Mission, King Street (1902)
Newcastle City Council Collection

17: Westminster Hotel

Westminster Hotel
(1 Feb 1898)
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections

Link to this photograph's Flickr page

18: Newcastle Town Hall Plan

Newcastle Town Hall Plan
1925
University of Newcastle Cultural Collections

Link to this photographs Flickr page

19: Soldiers' Baths

This ring of rocks ocean pool was built in 1882 and was popular with soldiers garrisoned at Fort Scratchley.

20: Convict Lumber Yard

The Convict Lumber Yard is one of Newcastle's first settlement sites - dating to 1801.

21: Nobby's Breakwater c.1925

Nobbys Breakwater
c.1925
Newcastle Museum Collection

Full Museum Record

22: Great Northern Hotel

A previous incarnation of the Great Northern
Hunter Photobank, Newcastle City Council

Full record

23: Terminus Hotel, 1959

Terminus Hotel
1959
Hunter Photobank

Full Record

24: Segenhoe

Segenhoe is an art Deco apartment block designed by architect Emil Sodersten. Sodersten also designed the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Segenhoe
Newcastle City Council: Hunter Photo Bank

Full record

25: Nobbys Tunnels

Image Copyright: (From Coal River Working Party Site)

Tunnels and chambers dating to the early to mid nineteenth century have been found beneath the headland (which was an island before the Macquarie Breakwater was completed. The mid-nineteenth century works were part of a scheme by Lt.Col. Barney to reduce the size of the island with explosives.

Coal River Working Party has undertaken extensive research on this area. For links see below.

• "Second Blasting Tunnel Found in Nobbys Headland"
• "Journey to the Centre of Nobbys"

26: Slideshow of images from Mattara Festival, 1964

27: Video Slideshow of Historical Photographs of Newcastle Harbour

28: Newcastle, Story of City

Newcastle Story of a City.

29: Church Street Culvert, 1830 (Tunnel)

Image: Newcastle City Council

This underground culvert was constructed in 1830 and runs to South Newcastle beach. The culvert currently carries storm water.

• See ABC Newcastle site for more information (Link includes audio story).
  

30: Fort Scratchley Documentary Trailer

31: Carrington Hydraulic Power Station and Railway, 1908

Carrington Hydraulic Power Station and Railway.
Newcastle City Council Collection: Hunter Photobank

This photograph was taken from the top of the nearby Clyde Hotel.

• Link to the full record.
  

32: Government Domain

33: Arches located during Newcomen Street Road Works

Image: Coal River Working Party / Ann Hardy

34: The Beacon Tower

Image: Wikimedia Commons

35: Corner of Watt and Scott Streets

Hunter Photo Bank: 093 000193

36: The Coal Monument

Known as the `Coal Monument` it was erected by citizens to commemorate the civic jubilee 1859-1909. The monument indicates that the output of coal was 308218 tons in 1859 and 6511002 tons in 1909. The monument was originally located in Pacific Park and relocated when Hunter Street was extended between 1923 and 1929. The monument was restored in 1986 with a grant from the Joint Coal Board.
Text: Trove

37: The original location of "The Coal Monument"

Originally in this locality, the monument was moved to Parnell Place when Hunter Street was extended 1923-1929.


Image: Hunter Photo Bank: 056 000304

38: Civic Theatre under Construction

Hunter Photobank: 163 001540

Full record

39: Soldiers' Baths 1908

Image: Hunter Photobank
Full Record

40: Plan of Flagstaff Hill

UoN Cultural Collections

41: Zaara Street Power Station, 1949

Hunter Photobank
Full Record

42: Newcastle Borough Market

The Council-owned Newcastle Borough Market was constructed in 1870 and served the community for 45 years. It was demolished and was replaced by the Strand Theatre.

Text: Paraphrased from scan
Image: UoN Cultural Collections

43: Strand Theatre (viewed from Market Street) 1972

Image: Hunter Photo Bank
Full Record

44: Strand Theatre

The Strand Theatre was constructed on the site of the old Newcastle Borough Market.


Strand Theatre 1972
Image: Hunter Photo Bank
Full Record

45: The Grand Hotel

Hunter Photo Bank
Full Record

46: NESCA House

Hunter Photo Bank
Full Record

47: NESCA House Sign

Hunter Photo Bank
Full record

This sign used to sit on top of NESCA House.

48: Visit to Synagogue by the Governor General in 1931