The History of Hunter Street
Hunter Street,
Information Pages (H2)
Lost
Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW Au
Short Stories of Early Hunter Street
Story of a Sandhill
By NORM BARNEY
The late Norm Barney wrote of Hunter
Streets trials and tribulations
in this piece, first published in the Newcastle Herald 20 years ago.
- IN
the beginning it was just a
track; It began near the sandhills and a
few hundred metres later petered out in the scrub. It was hilly and
water lapped at its northern edge.
It was given a name, Wellington
Street, probably after the famous Duke and his part in the
victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. The
name did not last long, for in 1823 the surveyor Henry Dangar began his
survey of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. He dropped the name
Wellington and it became Hunter
Street.
The name was there but not much else. The track, for that's all it was,
went only as far as today's Perkin Street. It was low, prone to
flooding, surrounded by ti-tree scrub and made mostly of dirty black
sand.
A few scattered houses, shops and hotels began to spring up along the
track but even by the 1850s those residents who made their homes at the
eastern end of the street, near Watt and Bolton streets, considered the
Rouse Hotel to be "in the bush". The hotel stood on the
site where the
main entrance to the former David Jones building was today.
One early settler described it as a "straggly street in a straggling
sort of town". Another remembered it as an uneven, hilly street, which
flooded after
heavy rain.
Recalling the town in 1866, Mr Thomas Brown wrote that it was
"surrounded by a tangled mass of brushwood" with "dilapidated fencing,
wretched huts and lots of sand". The streets, including Hunter Street,
were "unpaved, grass-grown and deserted".
Another pioneer settler recalled the street in the late 1850s as having
a few shops that were "little more then lean-tos and humpies."
The area we know today as Scott Street was submerged at high tide.
Those brave enough to build on the northern side of Hunter Street had
to place their timber homes or shops on pillars or stilts to avoid
being flooded.
Hunter Street was then much lower then it is today and many of the
early shops were built high to avoid flooding. Customers had to climb
as many as a dozen wooden steps to reach and enter a shop.
Climbing steps was not the only hazard faced by shoppers. The town and
the street was once overrun by goats and at one time the local police
were destroying up to 100 a week.
One of the early attempts to align the street in an organised way came
in the 1850s. As the street was filled in, most of the shops "came
down" to street level. But history records that one butcher shop near
the corner of Hunter and Perkin streets got lower and lower as the
street got higher and higher. In the end less then two metres of the
shop front was showing above Hunter Street.
The butcher installed steps to allow his customers to descend to the
shop and he displayed his meat at pavement level and employed a young
boy to keep the bush flies away from the carcasses.
In the 1850s Mr Colin Christie, later to become mayor of Newcastle,
worked in a boot and shoe shop opposite the site of David Jones. The
timber shops were so small they were known around town as the "sardine
boxes".
In 1857 Mr Christie recalled seeing a huge bed of sand outside the
present post office. It may well have been Newcastle's first roundabout
as it was used to "turn" bullock teams. In a paddock on the corner of
Hunter and Bolton Streets - the site of the old State Bank - horses
grazed and residents kept their carts and drays.
Reclaiming part of the harbour on the city side stabilised the area of
Hunter Street down to Perkin Street. With the coming of the railway,
businesses were on firmer ground.
Beyond Perkin Street there was little until Crown Street, and this was
the boundary between the two areas.
- For
years the area we now call the West End was nothing more then a
track. In the early 1850s the AA Company owned that section of track
between Crown Street and what became known as Bank Corner. The company
named it Blane Street, after one of the senior officials. It was to
retain that name for almost 40 years before being re-named Hunter
Street West.
The section of Hunter Street from the Bank Corner to Tudor Street was
part of Charlton Street, which once went as far as the Islington bridge.
For many years Blane Street was "off limits" to many residents. To go
west under the bridge was like crossing the border into a foreign
country. But gradually the AA Company opened up its land and houses and
shops began to appear along the street.
In the area between today's Crown and Darby streets there appeared a
few shops - a timber yard, watchmaker, fruit shop, furniture shop and
undertaker and, of course, the inevitable hotels. (In 1900 there were
26 hotels in Hunter Street; in 2013 there are five.) The land behind
the shops was a paddock that attracted some of the early circuses (they
also performed off Hunter Street, near today's King Street parking
station and in the Market Street area).
- A
Mrs Nicholls, known locally as "Gentle Annie" was one of the early
residents of Blane St and she lived near Crown Street. Gradually Blane
Street opened up but it took many years to establish beyond Melville
Street (now Union Street). A blacksmith occupied the site of what
became the Newcastle Gas Company, and on the current Honeysuckle site
there were about 100 houses. They later made way for the railway
workshops and some were moved to Bullock Island (Carrington), Wickham
and Stockton.
As the town evolved and progressed, so did Hunter Street. Transport was
primitive, with horse-drawn buses bringing people to the town and the
harbour. The coming of the railway made it easier for those who lived
out of town and near a rail line to get to Hunter Street.
The introduction of steam trains in 1887 helped to attract even more
people. The tram terminus was then at Perkin Street (Scott Street then
ended at Market Street).
By this time horse-drawn transport had ruled for many years and Hunter
Street was often crowded with horse-drawn buses, hansom cabs, carts,
drays, carriages and sulkies.
Horse droppings became both a nuisance and a health hazard. The council
employed men to clean up the streets every day but, while they could
remove the evidence of the horses, the could not keep away the dirt,
dust and flies that blew into shops and houses from the surrounding
bush.
Speed was another problem. Drivers were often taken to court and fined
for being in charge of a speeding horse or horses in Hunter Street.
In 1898 the council introduced a by-law prohibiting vehicular traffic,
drawn by animals, to travel at more than walking pace between Watt and
Brown streets on Saturdays and public holidays, up to 10.30am. It did
little to stop accidents in the street.
While the original section of Hunter Street has been built up, part of
Blane Street was still subject to flooding from high tides. In the
middle of the last century a young man drowned near today's Technical
College.
At the western end of Blane Street, near the Bank Corner, was Cottage
Creek and on its eastern banks - near the Palais Royale - were two
cemeteries, one for Catholics, the other for Presbyterians. It was also
at the edge of the creek, in the very early days of the settlement,
that the guard was posted to try and forestall escaping convicts.
Any improvements made to Hunter Street often meant an agreement between
two or more councils. Part of the West End was in the Wickham
municipality and this meant that both Newcastle and Wickham aldermen
had to agree if money was to be spent in the western part of the street.
Over the years, aldermen on both councils met and talked interminably
about how to improve the street. Funding was always the problem and
there were always some aldermen who wanted to use the most up-to-date
and expensive methods of paving or re-aligning the street.
Early photographs show it as dusty in dry weather and muddy in wet.
There were always drainage problems and endless complaints of raw
sewage entering the drains and eventually the harbour. The stench from
some drains was said to be continuous and overwhelming.
Over the years the council discussed, and carried out, the sealing of
parts of Hunter Street with wooden blocks, concrete and asphalt. This
finally overcame the problem of mud and sand, which in wet weather saw
one end of the street covered in black mud, the other in yellow-brown.
In the very early days of the settlement when names were given to the
streets or tracks, Watt Street (originally George Street) was
considered Newcastle's most important thoroughfare. Hunter Street began
its western journey from Watt Street.
As Hunter Street grew in stature and length, the city fathers decided
that the street should be extended to Pacific and then Telford streets.
This meant that properties in Watt Street had to be purchased and
demolished.
It took a special Act of Parliament and more than 20 years of lobbying
and discussion before the way was clear to extend Hunter Street.
Article from the Newcastle Herald
in 1959
- CHANGING
CITY Former Appearance
NEWCASTLE IN 1859
An
illustration in the "Newcastle Morning Herald" showed the work in
progress on the western end of Church-street, overlooking the town from
the Hill. It indicated the change that is taking place in Newcastle,
which is being rebuilt at a rapid rate. At the time of incorporation,
77 years ago,
- Newcastle was a fair sample of the coast
towns of the most primitive type.The streets, according to the stories
of old residents, were imposed of black loamy sand unformed, without
kerbing and guttering, and the condition of Hunter-street was so bad
that bullock drawn and horse-drawn vehicles frequently became bogged in
it. The street had not its present ample length, either. The eastern
boundary ended at Watt-street; and it linked with Blane-street on the
west. The streets were eventually merged. Blane street, which began
near the Civic Block; is now forgotten. The name is frequently
mentioned in the business notices appearing in the old issues of the
"Newcastle Morning Herald." The change has been all for the better.
- On the corner of Watt and Hunter Streets was the old Commercial Hotel
kept by a Mr. Croft, adjoining the old theatre, "the scene of many a
good show and gay revel," according to an identity who has lived in the
city since the mayorship of Mr. James Hannell in 1859. The corner later
occupied by the Bank of New Zealand was then the site of the Prince of Wales Hotel,
the space intervening between it and the theatre being
occupied by
several stores, including that of J.Spragg, Tighe's butcher-shop, and
the surgery of Dr. Knaggs.
From this point until reaching Rouse's
Hotel, nearer the west, the only business was a general
store, kept by Mr. Greaves. Pearson's
furniture warehouse
followed Rouse's hotel. The site is to-day occupied by premises of much
greater pretensions.On "the harbour side" of Hunter-street the
commercial world was represented by Langham's store, and where it once
stood Mr. R. Ingall established his business. The Steam Packet Hotel
stood on a site that was later occupied by Sorby's store. Another
equally well-known building was the
Ship Inn,
in which a banking business was afterwards conducted. Proceeding
further along the side of Hunter-street the only remaining building was
the Court-house. It was surrounded by a fence, extending well into the
roadway. The chief business centre was Watt-street, then an unformed
thoroughfare, with luxuriant grass growing
in the roadway. Behind
the premises later owned by the Bank of New South Wales were found the
remains of the old dwelling in which the bank at that time did
business. It was formerly the residence of Mr John Bingle--one of the
city's coal and shipping pioneers-and stood back from the road, fronted
by a garden with date palms growing in front of the house.
- EARLY WATT
STREET.
- At
the upper end of Watt-street stood the Presbyterian Church and manse,
immediately across the road being the residence of Mr. James Reid and
the Post office. The Caledonian Hotel and Magney's Hotel were nearby.
Mr.
James Dalby, now living at West Maitland, but a regular visitor to
Newcastle, was born in Bolton-street in 1847, and his father, on
removing to Watt-street, carried on a small business near the hotels
mentioned. Broughton and Downey's ship chandlery completed the list of
business places on that side of the street. At the latter place the
shipping portion of the community was accustomed to congregate with
occasional adjournments across the street to then popular dispensary of
liquid refreshment kept by Mrs. MacGreavy. Her place adjoined a shop
kept W H. White. There was little, according to the stories of Mr.
Dalby and other veterans, in the by-streets to attract attention.
- At the back of the Steam
Packet Hotel there
was a water-reserve, the old town pump being on the site of the
municipal baths of that day, and long since disappeared. The "Newcastle
Chronicle" as regularly published in Bolton-street, in the building
from which the "Newcastle Morning Herald" was later issued for about
half a century, and which was removed to make way for the offices in
which this journal is printed to-day.
- The only building in the Market Square was a hostelry known
as the London Hotel originally
the Miners Arms
and afterwards becoming a customs-house.
- From
Church-street, stretching away to the south, and from Perkins street to
Darby street, was a mass of dense undergrowth and bush. The only
buildings beyond the Church-street boundary were the premises now used
as a mental hospital and the Christ Church parsonage.
- MAITLAND
ROAD A FOREST TRACK.
- Passing
under the Australian Agriculural Co.'s bridge, which stood as a town
landmark for so many years, the traveller was almost at once in the
bush. Hunter street West, or Maitland-road, as it was then termed being
but a forest track.
- The Black
Diamond Hotel occupied
a site that was later acquired by the City Council in connection with
its Civic Block buildings. This hotel, Cameron's Inn and the Empire
Hotel, with the railway station, and the residence of Mr. Fleming at
Honeysuckle Point, were the only buildings of note beyond the bridge.
East of Pacific-street there were no buildings, except the
harbourmaster's residence and the gaol, the entire area of the
Sand-hills-as the name implies being an open space of drifting sand,
with lagoons of surface water here and there.
Along the waterfront
the same primitive conditions obtained. Formerly the tide flowed to the
town side of Scott street, coming up to the footpath in front of the
Metropolitan Hotel. About the time of incorporation the street had been
partly reclaimed. A well-known waterside hotel in those days was the
Market Inn, close by which stood Captain Weatherill's ship chandlery
and timberyard. The only available wharf was at the foot of
Watt-street. There the steamers landed cargo on a rickety structure,
the site of which has since been reclaimed.
To the eastward of the
wharf there was a pile of ballast deposited by incoming vessels,
forming a rough jetty, which was approached by a wood bridge from the
end of the wharf, under which an entrance was effected to the boat
harbour and pilot boatshed. From this point proceed ing towards Allen's
Hill the beach was entirely open; and in scores of instances boats
landed there from the vessels in port, the crews filling their water
casks at a well close to the beach.
- The natives used to
assemble at odd times--notably on Queen's birthday on a block of land
and stage a corroboree under the direction of King Billy.
By Spero Davias
The
History of Hunter Street
Hunter Street,
Information Pages (H2)
Lost
Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW Au