 | Newcastle Off the Beaten Path | Tips 1 - 10 of 44 |  |
Popular Off the Beaten Path | Miscellaneous Off the Beaten Path Tips | All Tips (44) Visit Morpeth - In the heart of Hunter River Country, just a few kilometres from Maitland is the historic village of Morpeth. Classified by the National Trust, Morpeth was established in 1821 on the banks of the Hunter River. It was once a thriving river port for ships taking goods around Australia and the world. Visitors can meander through the village with a self-guided heritage walk brochure and look at the beautiful sandstone buildings and pathways. Leave a Comment |
Less than 10kms from the city centre you can be in the middle of near pristine wilderness. That's one of the great things about Newcastle, you don't have to go far to get away from the city stress and we don't have much of that anyway.
To get to this location you head out east from Charlestown and you will get to a carpark where you can leave your vehicle and take a nice bushwalk or you can travel a little futher on and take the dirt road, called Scouts Camp (because there is one at the end) Road then park your car at Leggy Point car park and walk down to the beach.
This is about a 1 1/2 km walk and, half way down you will get the view you see here, taken on a winter's day. In 2003 a Southern Right whale calved here and hung around for over 2 months while her baby bulked up. It was significant because it's the first time this species has been sighted this far north since whaling commenced. Naturally enough, the day I went to see mother and calf they had moved around to the next beach! Still, I had seen them a month earlier at Bar Beach.
Newcastle CIty is just around the furthest headland shown here and the scouts camp is just to the left out of vision on the banks of the lagoon. Leave a Comment |
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A few kilometres before Singleton, on your left on a hilltop, is the splendid sight of Baroona (formerly Rosemont) on land granted to James Mudie in 1823. Rosemount was built in 1829 by John Lanarch, his overseer and, later, his son-in-law and business partner. Mudie's own property, situated on the opposite side of the present highway, was known as Castle Forbes but Baroona is the standout today.
Mudie's story is quite interesting. Appointed a magistrate in 1830, he quickly developed a reputation for excessive use of corporal punishment. When Governor Bourke decided to limit the capacity of magistrates to inflict summary punishments Mudie helped organize a petition against him for what he considered an extravagant leniency.
Five of Mudie's convicts were executed after they mutinied, tried to shoot Lanarch and fled. An investigation into charges that Mudie and Lanarch degraded their servants may have cleared them of ill treatment, but found them wanting in relation to the issuance of rations. Angered by the report, Mudie came under fire and counter-attacked by subverting Bourke's appointment of one of Mudie's critics. This seems to have been influential in Bourke's resignation of his governorship. Leave a Comment |
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Rosemount Estate is a famous name in wines in the Hunter Valley. From a small beginning it grew.
And grew and grew until it was taken over.
Starting off bottling a few hundred thousand, they were talking of 15,000,000 per annum.
Sadly, as ever in these situations, the mega group that bought them out decided to close the whole operation.
C'est tragique!
The nearby town of Denman, where most of the workers lived, is devastated.
The touristy part is still open and there's a nice restaurant and you can still buy wine there but, the gloom of the bottling plant closure hovers as a dark cloud. Leave a Comment |
Actually, this is not quite true. The Hunter Region Botanical Gardens do not feature roses but certainly have enough natives and exotic plants to satisfy the curious traveller and avid gardener alike. They are open 9-4 daily, seven days a week and mainly staffed by volunteers, many of them still those that started the whole project in 1986. They were a long time coming but have been well laid out on 140 hectares and one of its features is that it boasts Australia's largest collection of Cacti and succulents.
Should you require light refreshments, they have those available as well.
Located 20 kilometres from the city just near Raymond Terrace. A word of caution, if you visit them a week or two after rain in summer, do bring some insect repellant for the mozzies although the canteen has some just in case.
If you want to wander all the trails leisurely I would allow 2-3 hours and you may get misplaced a few times trying to follow their maps but it's such a relaxing way to spend half a day you won't care! I'm sure most of the other 100,000 plus visitors annually would agree with me. Leave a Comment Phone: 02 4987 1655 |
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An afternoon to spare could well be spent at Morpeth, a heritage listed little town where, once upon a time, ships used to go. This was a central port for the Hunter Valley when roads were nondescript and water was the highway of choice. The old bond warehouses still remain though they're now tarted up as boutiques, restaurants and arty shops.
My favourite pastime is to have a devonshire tea overlooking the river. If you get lucky (my viewpoint) you might get cheeky blue wrens sharing your fare.
The variety of tourist-oriented shops is enough to while away a couple of hours for even the most jaded shopper.
They often have little festivals up there as well, one of the most popular being the Jazz Festivals in autumn and spring. Leave a Comment |
Do take time to have a look at our fountain. It is unique and, if you're there in spring or summer, the flowers add to its ambience.
The design has always been a favourite of mine. I vividly recall my time as an apprentice fitter and turner and the tradesmen were lamenting the cost ($30,000 at the time) of it all and how the money could have been better spent on other things. I was a lone dissenting voice. I'd like to think time has vindicated my position.
It's just been renovated, as it turns out at a far greater cost than it originally was to install it!
Located in Civic Park, a central relaxation area that divides the administrative centre of Newcastle from the art centre.
Across the road is the lovely sandstone town hall and up the back is the Art Gallery and city library. Above the library is the Lovett Gallery. Sometimes this is well worth a look, depending on what exhibition is featured. It is only one room but there is often some wonderful stuff in there, particularly photographic exhibitions.
The two storey Newcastle City Art Gallery is good for half an hour if you're into art. It's slowly building up a quality collection that vies with travelling exhibitions for the limited space. Leave a Comment |
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For some reason, Lake Macquarie never became a major tourist destination. Australia's largest salt water or seaboard lake, it lies just south of Newcastle City and is, for all intents and purposes, a part of that city, even though it does have its own status as an independent city.
Water sports abound here, particularly sailing as it is an ideal spot.
There are many parks around the foreshore but accommodation is limited.
The main shopping areas are Toronto, Belmont and Charlestown, though places like Warners Bay and Morisset certainly have their share.
Toronto also has a speedboat facility and water skiing, windsurfing and aqua-jetting are fairly common in some areas around the lake as well.
It's well worth looking into all the little nooks and crannies around the foreshore as there are many lovely viewpoints and picnic spots.
The lake is three and a half times the size of Sydney Harbour and you can see pretty sunsets over the water from the eastern shoreline. Leave a Comment |
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Many people who spend a little time in Newcastle like to head off into the valley for a day trip. I can recommend that activity. If you want any suggested itineraries just drop me a line and I'll make some suggestions.
This is one way that could be included in such a trip. It is the Golden Way and it ends up at Dubbo if you followed it all the way. However, this part is near Jerrys Plains.
The Hunter Valley is noted for its vineyards which can be found throughout the valley though most are located on the southern side and the ones where 2 million tourists go annually are situated around the Pokolbin area, along with five golf courses and the fabulous Hunter Valley Gardens.
There are also coal mines. Lots of coal mines that supply over 70,000,000 tonnes annually to the world.
You can also find rich dairy country and world famous horse studs flanked on one side by Barrington Tops and the other by the Watagan Mountains. So much to see.....so little time! Leave a Comment |
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Newcastle's Maritime Museum is a hotch potch of all types of things nautical. Due to it being an active port, Newcastle has had lots of incidents and lots of wrecks, most of which are well documented and nowhere better than here.
The most recent notable event was in 1974 when storm force winds lashed the coast and a 54,000 ton tanker, the Sygna, didn't heed the warning sufficiently and was washed up on Stockton Beach, the crew being dramatically plucked from the decks by choppers from the nearby RAAF base. Subsequently it was attempted to refloat the vessel for scrapping purposes but they only got half of it off when it snapped in two, the rear section staying firmly wedged forever in the sand where it still visibly sits today.
Most recently we had HMS Nottingham towed in after all but sinking at Lord Howe Island after striking a reef. It actually had to be brought in backwards, so bad was the damage to the bow.
Since Newcastle is the world's biggest port in terms of tonnage (80,000,000 tonnes of coal alone this year), it is only fitting that some of its history is preserved. Leave a Comment Phone: 02 4929 2588Other Contact: Newcastle waterfront. |
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on October 24, 2004
Newcastle
on September 13, 2003
