Newcastle Sports & Outdoors

The Forum at the University of Newcastle has the 2nd highest climbing wall in Australia. At an awesome height of 18 metres, the artificial wall is a magnificent centre piece of The Forum where members and guests can experience the extreme world of climbing.

The colour coded routes range from an easy 10 for the beginner to the more advanced climbing routes of 20+. In addition, The Forum can offer climbing tuition, specialised climbing classes, group sessions and personal training for persons of most ages.

1 more image

Yachting has taken on a new lease of life since the opening of the Newcastle Marina around the turn of the century.
Most sundays they head out for some offshore racing and you'll often see them right up close as they come out through the breakwalls.
This shot was taken from Nobbys breakwater.

Netball is big in Newcastle. Once upon a time we had our own team in the National League but we got controversially axed. Newcastle not happy, it has happened so many times in so many sports it's almost embarrassing.
Still, that hasn't stopped netball being extremely popular in Newcastle and, just behind the No. 1 Sportsground in Union Street are a bank of netball courts, 20 plus if my memory serves me correctly. Heck, I only live 100 metres away, you'd think I could do better than that!
Especially as I walk past them at least three times a week.
Anyhow, I digress; there's also a soccer ground there which regularly gets flooded when it buckets down and, slack me, I don't have a picture of netball being played but I do have a picture of the wet ground after a humungous storm.

Equipment: If you want to play then just turn up any weekend in winter and there's thousands of people coming and going (and taking up the car parking spot out in front of our place). It's all very colourful and very healthy and all you need is your uniform, a pair of impact resistant sandshoes and a team.

Mmm, I can't imagine there are too many VTers who are into skateboarding. This is more an excuse to use a photo of the local skateboard ramp at South Newcastle Beach than anything else. Having said that it's not the only one surfside and you can find one at Bar Beach, Stockton and Redhead as well as a few in the inner suburbs.
Personally, I just wish the graffiti artists would go elsewhere...........like in the water.........for a very long time.

Every weekend when I'm not travelling I head off over to my bike club and have a race. I'm a member of the Hunter Valley Veterans Cycling Club and we race every Sunday at the eastern end of Kooragang Island, 9.00 am winter and 8.00 am summer.
Other clubs race here as well on Saturday afternoons at 2.30pm.
There are 5 clubs in the Hunter Valley all up and any of them will make you quite welcome on their race days.

Equipment: All you need is a bike, a helmet and a racing licence, current of course.
Some days you get lucky. The picture shows me winning a race, for which the handicapper put me up a grade the following week.