Newcastle, Australia
57City seaport of New South Wales, Australia, at the mouth of the Hunter River 167 km north of Sydney. Founded in 1801, Newcastle owes its position and importance to the presence in the area of large coal deposits, which were discovered by Lieutenant Shortland in 1797.
The city, which is on the Tasman Sea, developed after the discovery of rich coalfields in the area. It is the Australia's chief coal-mining region. Major expansion following the construction of the steelworks in 1915. In 1999 the steelworks closed.
It has Australia's largest concentration of heavy industry, and its products include machinery, ships, metal goods, chemicals, fertilizers and textiles. Its port exports coal, iron and steel, wheat, wool and lumber, and by tonnage of cargo is one of Australia's four leading ports. And also the largest coal exporting port in the world.
In 1989 Newcastle was rocked by an earthquake, which resulted in loss of life and millions of dollars of damage. I wasn't living there then, and while Newcastle is about 2 hours north of Sydney and I was 2 hours west of Sydney, I felt the tremor. I was in a supermarket at the time and my first thought after seeing the boxes sitting on top of the aisles sway was that a car had backed into a pylon in the underground carpark underneath me.
The town is also known for it's thriving arts scene. Something which has really taken off, coincidentally, with the closure of the steelworks. While the place was trying to come to terms with the loss of thousands of jobs and even it's own identity. Notably The Shoot Out (a 24 hour filmmaking competition) started in 1999 and started to fill that void. The Shoot Out is just one of many cultural events that take place in the Hunter Region.
While I don't live there now, and I wasn't born there, I consider it my hometown. The people, the places, the personality of the region... it's like it adopted me as one of her own.
Accompanying this hub are photos taken around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie...
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Darkside - Newcastle is akin to its British counterpart in terms of industry etc, though the coal side of things have now diminished. Maybe that's why it was named so?
Interesting :)
@frogdropping, way back when the place first settled and the coal seams were discovered, a lot of Brit miners moved downunder. The result being a lot of town names being similar. Cardiff, Wallsend, Gloucester, Stroud, just to name a few.
I lived in Newcastle for about 15 years. The photos are nice but I feel you have omitted a great deal of information in terms of its appeal to would-be visitors and glossed over its value as an industrial center. Perhaps when the hub challenge is over you might consider adding more to this hub. Normally your hubs are so thorough -- I enjoy reading them.
@ The Good Cook, out of all the hubs I've done, this one is most likely to be a continuing Work In Progress. I have plenty more photos to add. But I don't want to get too sentimental with the words, as I'll probably ramble on far too much. And I expect the collection of Newcastle Related Links to grow considerably.
But certainly with 98 hubs to go, this can be easily considered a rush job (at the moment).
Love the pics Glen - fabulous job - as usual!
It's truly a wonderful part of the world, with great businesses and a good future. A great place to invest.
It's nice to see a Newcastle business (http://twitter.com/Leenanes) harnessing the power of the world wide web. ;) :)
And thank you for the thoughtful and appropriate comment. You would not believe the amount of crap I flat out deny on my hubs and blogs.
You guys must be gearing up for July 1st. Is it the calm before the storm or is it already a hive of activity in preparation for tax time?
Newcastle Related Links
References
The Young People's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4, 1967, Southern Cross International
Encyclopedia of The World and its People, Volume 16, Bay Books.
Merit Students Encyclopedia, Volume x, P.F. Collier Inc, 1979.
nms 3 years ago
Beautiful photos...only thing I knew is Newcastle United football club in England.