Originally published in the Illustrated Sydney News, on 26 November 1853.
NEWCASTLE, formerly known as King's Town, is a free port in the County of Northumberland. It is situated about eighty miles from Sydney, at the mouth of the Hunter, which, rising in the Liverpool Range, passes through a fertile and extensive tract of country, and receiving below the thriving inland town of Maitland, two other navigable rivers — the Williams, and the Patterson — here, at length, disembogues into the Pacific.
Newcastle is the seat of a bishopric, and is thus entitled to the appellation of " a city," although us yet one of the smallest in the British Dominions, — its population being probably not more than sixteen or seventeen hundred souls. Its chief importance is undoubtedly derived from large adjacent coal fields, which form the chief supply of that species of fuel to the colony, and which will doubtless materially contribute to its advance in wealth and consideration, from the large consumption of coal — consequent upon recent additions to our steam communication with England and the neighbouring colonies.
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| View of Newcastle, Hunter's River, N.S.W. from the Obelisk, Looking North 1853 |
To the left of our engraving, in the extreme distance, will be perceived the mountains in the vicinity of Port Stephens, while in the centre, Nobby's — a rocky island, of peculiar shape — is seen projecting boldly into the sea, and forming a convenient shelter to the entrance of the bay. At Coal Head, on the southern point (to the right), stands the light house, where the pilots are stationed to go off to vessels as they arrive; the building, surrounded by a wall, on the opposite headland, is used for the confinement of convicts, who are employed in the construction of an extensive breakwater. The City of Newcastle, conjointly with East and West Maitland, returns to the Legislative Council (under the denomination of the Northumberland Boroughs), one member, who is at present our talented fellow colonist, George Robert Nichols, Esq.
Source: Newcastle (1853, November 26). Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872), p. 4.
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