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NEWCASTLE EAST
People who don't know Newcastle are always surprised at how many different activities the city offers. We have compiled a list of attractions you can visit whilst in Newcastle
Newcastle Tram
A 45-minute overview of the city, its major tourist attractions, convict past, fort, gaol etc, with an informative commentary, is provided aboard Newcastle's Famous Tram, a replica tram from the days when they were a major means of intracity transport. It departs from Newcastle Railway Station (cnr Watt and and Scott Sts) twice a day, 10am and 1pm. The tram runs a service to the Hunter Vallley on weekends.
Former Police Station
Walk east (towards the ocean) along Scott St. At 92 Scott St, opposite Pacific St, is the fine old stationmaster's residence (1858). Beautifully restored it has fine iron columns supporting a porch with very ornate cast-iron lacework. Opposite, at the corner of Pacific and Scott Sts, is a building partially obscured by hedges and trees. It is the former Newcastle East Police Station (1880) built as a water police residence.
The Old Courthouse Column and Coal Mining Monument
Head east along Scott St. Near its end Parnell Place runs off to the left. This thoroughfare was hit by shells from a Japanese submarine in 1942. To the immediate right is a small park wherein lies a large column. This belonged to the old courthouse (1841) on the corner of Bolton and Hunter Sts which was demolished in 1899 to make way for the post office. At the end of Parnell Place is a complex intersection, to the side of which is a monument to Newcastle's coalmining and shipping industries with a series of plaques depicting the evolution and interaction of both industries.
Fort Scratchley and Maritime Museum
From this intersection a small driveway heads up the steep hill to Fort Scratchley which is perched atop a large knoll that lies immediately behind, and overlooking, Nobbys Beach, the headland and the river mouth. Called Braithwaite's Head by Lt. Shortland in 1797 this eminence was later known by various names (Fort Fiddlesticks to the convicts). Being an obvious place for a warning beacon, a signal mast was set up in 1804, earning it the name Signal Hill. It was replaced by a coal-fire beacon in 1813 which burned until Nobbys Lighthouse was set up in 1858. The army gained use of the site from 1843 and it was, for some time, used as a training ground. When fear of a Russian invasion gripped the colony in the 1870s it was decided that Newcastle, because of its strategic importance as a coal and steel producer, needed to be properly fortified. The fort, designed by Lt-Col. Peter Scratchley, was built between 1881 and 1886 though it was, of course, upgraded in the twentieth century. The Heritage of Australia notes that Fort Scratchley 'is one of only two examples of late 19th-century military fortifications in New South Wales'. The fort's moment came in June 1942 when a Japanese submarine attacked Newcastle which, as a coal port, was an obvious target. The guns of the fort (which, at this point, had been waiting for action for sixty five years) then fired the only shots ever launched at an enemy vessel from the Australian mainland. The military finally departed from the site in 1972 and it is now the Newcastle Region Maritime and Military Museum. Displays include the Boat Gallery, a carronade gun from 1762, a torpedo (they're bigger than you might think), items salvaged from the French barque Adolphe which was wrecked on the northern breakwater in 1904 (and which can still be seen at times) and the Time Ball, which stood atop Customs House from 1877 to the 1940s, and which was lowered at exactly 1.00 p.m. each afternoon to allow ships to check their chronometers. In the rock platform below Fort Scratchley are the ocean pools known as the Soldiers Baths, built in 1882.
Nobbys
Immediately below Fort Scratchley, off the roundabout at the end of Nobbys Rd, is a kiosk and a large carpark adjacent Harbourside Park. From this point a very narrow finger of land extends out from the mainland to the knoll known as Nobbys Head whereon sits a lighthouse standing sentinel over the southern side of the Hunter estuary. Beyond the headland the rocky mass of the southern breakwater lends a sheltering arm to ships entering the harbour. Captain Cook, passing up the coast in 1770 described Nobbys as a 'small round rock or Island, laying close under the land'. This refers to the fact that it was then disconnected entirely from the mainland. Lieutenant Shortland sought shelter at Nobbys while searching for escaped convicts in 1797 and named it Hackings Point. There he found coal and this resulted in a subsequent visit by Lt James Grant who called it Coal Island. Coal was mined there until 1817 but the hillock was known as Nobbys by 1810. Utilising convict labour and rock fill from the Fort Scratchleyarea, work began on the construction of a pier out to the island in 1818, thought to be the oldest rock-fill breakwater in the Southern Hemisphere. It was named Macquarie Pier after Governor Macquarie who laid the foundation stone. Work was halted in 1823, recommenced in 1836 using rocks from Nobbys, completed in 1846 and rebuilt in 1864. In 1855 Nobbys was reduced in size from 61 m to 27 m and the lighthouse erected in 1857 to replace the coal-fire beacon of Fort Scratchley. The original lighthouse was designed by Edmund Blacket though it has since been replaced You can walk along this artificial promontory, with Nobbys Beach to your right, past the lighthouse and along the breakwater to its terminus, from whence there are excellent views across to the northern breakwater which extends outwards from the southern end of Stockton Beach, a massive stretch of sandy shoreline which you can see trailing off in a north-easterly direction to Port Stephens. Not far from the northern breakwater, clearly visible on the shoreline of the beach, is the 1974 wreck of the Sygna. Towards the end of the pier are five bas-relief sculptures reflecting upon various aspects of Newcastle and its history. Walking back towards the mainland the remnants of some more military fortifications are clearly apparent on Nobbys, though they are not very accessible.
