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Newcastle
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NEWCASTLE
is a blue-collar town enlivened by its waterside location, and with an alternative feel provided by a big dose of surf culture and a large student community. New South Wales' second city, with a population of around a quarter of a million, it suffers from comparison with nearby Sydney but in fact it has plenty going for it, especially as it's recently had a much-needed facelift: years of accumulated soot has been scraped off its stately buildings, riverside gardens have been created in front of the city centre, and an old wharf has been converted into a waterside entertainment venue. Heavy industry is a thing of the past in Newcastle - the production of steel here ceased in late 2000 and most of the slag heaps have been worked over - but the docks are still functional, particularly with the through traffic of coal from the Hunter Valley. However, for a former major industrial city, Newcastle is surprisingly attractive. You might not choose to spend your entire holiday here, but it can be a good base for excursions, particularly for the wineries of the nearby Hunter Valley. The surf beaches are wonderful, and there are some more sheltered sandy beaches around the rocky promontory at the mouth of the Hunter.
Newcastle was founded in 1804 for convicts too hard even for Sydney to cope with, but the river is the real reason for the city's existence. Coal was brought down it from the fields of the Hunter Valley, to be exported around the country and the world, and the proximity of the mines encouraged the establishment of other heavy industries. In more recent years Newcastle made world headlines when Australia's worst earthquake struck the area two days after Christmas in 1989, killing twelve people and destroying several buildings. Rebuilding was imaginative - for example, the use of colourful mosaics in the pavement of Beaumont Street in Hamilton, one of the hardest-hit areas Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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