Newcastle, also known as Greater Newcastle (locally NEW-kah-səl; Awabakal: Mulubinba), is a large metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales, Australia. It includes the cities of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie and it is the hub of the Lower Hunter region, which includes most parts of the cities of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock, and Port Stephens Council. Newcastle is also known by its colloquial nickname, Newy. A Newcastle resident can also be known as a Novocastrian.
Located 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 exporting harbour in the world, exporting 143 million tonnes of coal in 2022. Beyond the city, the Hunter Region possesses large coal deposits. Geologically, the area is located in the central-eastern part of the Sydney Basin.
Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by the Awabakal and Worimi Aboriginal people, who called the area Malubimba.
Based on Aboriginal-language references documented in maps, sketches and geological descriptions, eight landmarks have been officially dual-named by the NSW Geographic Names Board with their traditional Aboriginal names. They include Nobbys Head also known as Whibayganba; Flagstaff Hill also known as Tahlbihn; Pirate Point also known as Burrabihngarn; Port Hunter also known as Yohaaba; Hunter River (South Channel) also known as Coquun;
Shepherds Hill also known as Khanterin; Ironbark Creek also known as Toohrnbing and Hexham Swamp also known as Burraghihnbihng.
In June 1796, a group of fishermen from the British convict outpost at Sydney, were driven by bad weather into a harbour at what is now Newcastle. They found considerable amounts of coal lying on the ground near the beach, some of which they brought back to Sydney. The fishermen had "conducted themselves improperly" while ashore and gotten into conflict with the local Aboriginal people. Two of the fishermen were wounded, one of them fatally.
Over a year later, in September 1797, Lieutenant John Shortland explored the area and named the Hunter River. This was largely accidental, as he had been sent to the region in search of a number of convicts who had seized a vessel called Cumberland while it was sailing from Sydney Cove. Lieutenant 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 resources of coal and cedar.
Early coal and cedar operations
Over the next two years, influential colonists like Simeon Lord and James Underwood sent vessels and workers to the region to extract the valuable coal and cedarwood. Some of these workers skirmished with local Awabakal men, and an armed party under Henry Hacking was dispatched to investigate, which resulted in the shooting of several Aboriginal people. Coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export.
First attempt at British settlement
In 1800, fifteen convicts seized a small supply ship from the Hawkesbury River and sailed it to the mouth of the Hunter River where it was wrecked. Three of the surviving convicts became the area's first British residents when they were adopted into a local Aboriginal clan. A year later, Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales, decided to send a surveying expedition under Colonel William Paterson and Francis Barrallier to assess the feasibility of establishing an official settlement. Paterson returned with a positive account outlining the cedar and coal resources, and also the massive loads of oyster shell middens which could be utilised for much needed lime mortar.
Subsequently, later in 1801, a convict camp called King's Town (named after the governor) was established to mine coal and cut timber. The convicts, numbering under twenty, were treated harshly and mutinied twice in six months before Governor King decided to abandon the settlement in February 1802.
A convict 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 renamed Newcastle, after the English city. The name first appeared by the commission issued by Governor King on 15 March 1804 to Lieutenant Charles Menzies of the marine detachment on HMS Calcutta, then at Port Jackson, appointing him superintendent of the new settlement.
The first consignment, consisting of 34 convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804 in three ships: HMS Lady Nelson, the Resource and the James. The convicts were Irish rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion. 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. The link with Newcastle upon Tyne, England (its namesake) and also 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.
In 1805, Menzies resigned as commandant, with Cadwallader Draffin being promoted to the role. He was soon found to be mentally unstable and in turn was quickly replaced by the medical officer of the settlement, Charles Throsby. Throsby brought order and discipline to the convict colony, where the prisoners were set to work securing coal, cedar and salt from sunrise to sunset.
In 1808, Lieutenant William Lawson was appointed as commandant. Lawson was a member of the Rum Corps who overthrew Governor William Bligh. Associates of Bligh, such as Henry Browne Hayes were sent as convicts to Newcastle where Lawson treated them harshly. Under Lawson, the severe work of manual limeburning was commenced, where the convicts were forced to burn and carry caustic unslaked lime through seawater to load onto barges.
Lawson was replaced in 1810 and a period of relatively merciful administration followed under the command of several military officers. In early 1816, Newcastle's first school opened with seventeen pupils in attendance.
Under Captain James Wallis, commandant from 1816 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 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 the (much reinforced) breakwater survives. Wallis also established a female factory on Nobbys Head for insubordinate women convicts. This scheme was short-lived due to the terrible conditions endured by the women.