Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 9 May 1902.
Overlaying the 1890 map into Google Earth shows that the Glendor property was where the northern tip of Maryland is today.
This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.
Quite number of locations around Newcastle seem to have attracted the name Frog Hollow …
This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.
The name of this forgotten suburb is preserved in Heaton Public School, which curiously is not located within the area of Heaton private town, but just to the east in Jesmond.
This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.
This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.
On 13 December 1920 the “YY Aerated Water Company” was registered in Newcastle for the purpose of acquiring the business of Healey Brothers, a manufacturer of aerated water and cordials in Wickham. The name of the company was inspired by the daughter of one of the company directors, who on her recent honeymoon in New Zealand learned of the Maori word “wai-wai”, meaning “running water”.
In 1937 the company opened a new modern factory in Wickham, with electrically driven machinery. With continued success in the following decades, in 1958 Newcastle City Council approved the company’s application to construct a larger factory in Verulam Road Lambton, at a cost of £25,000.
YY operated in a time when glass bottles were valuable. When you bought a soft drink you purchased the contents but not the container, which had a label reminding that “This bottle is not sold and always remains the property of YY Aerated Water Co.” Consumers received a small deposit refund when returning bottles, which were taken back to the factory to be washed and re-used. In 1965 YY installed a new £15,000 “Bellock” automatic bottle washer in their Lambton factory.
In the 1970s the production of soft drinks came to be dominated by a few multi-national corporations, and smaller operations like YY struggled to compete. After trading at a loss for several years, on 30 August 1983 YY ceased production at Lambton with the loss of 12 jobs. The company closed after 63 years of operation.
Just a week later another small soft drink factory in Lambton announced its closure, with the loss of 15 jobs. The Schweppes facility had been operating in Orlando Road since 1954, but the company decided to cease local production to concentrate manufacturing in Sydney instead. YY may have left Lambton over 40 years ago, but their fleet of brightly coloured trucks and catchy slogan “First for Thirst” will still be a fond memory for many a Novocastrian.
The article above was first published in the November 2024 edition of The Local.
In the 1950s, two different cordial manufacturing companies opened factories in Lambton – the YY Aerated Water Co, and the NSW Aerated Water Company. Because of the similarity of name, company mergers and acquisitions, the proximity of their factories in Lambton, the fact that they both had moved from Wickham, and that they both closed in 1983, the two companies are easily confused. To make sense of them the table below shows a timeline summary with a separate column for each company.
| Year | YY Aerated Water Co | NSW Aerated Water Co / Schweppes |
|  | |
| 1876 | Auguste Ferriff moves from Murrurundi to Newcastle to produce aerated waters at premises in Darby St. NMH 28/08/1876, NMH 17/11/1876 | |
| 1877 | George E Redman, purchases equipment from Ferriff, who has ceased manufacturing. Redman commences manufacturing in Newcomen Street. NMH 02/03/1877 | |
| 1891 | First mention of Healey Bros, with cordial factory in Hamilton. NMH 21/07/1891 | |
| 1896 | Formation of NSW Aerated Water and Confectionery company, by the amalgamation of several existing companies: Coleman Bros, G Redman, Rowland Bros. NMH 23/12/1896 | |
| 1900 | Healey Bros cordial factory now in Wickham. NMH 10/03/1900 | |
| 1920 | YY Aerated Water Company formed and acquires Healey Brothers cordial manufacturer. DCNASL 28/12/1920 | |
| 1937 | New factory in Wickham with electrically driven machinery. NS 13/09/1937 | |
| 1953 | Purchase of land in Orlando Road Lambton. Vol-Fol 6014-246 | |
| 1954 | New factory opened in Lambton. NS 09/11/1954 | |
| 1958 | Application to Newcastle Council to build new factory in Lambton. NMH 20/08/1958 | |
| 1959 | Purchase of land in Verulam Road Lambton for new factory. Vol-Fol 4758-152 | |
| 1965 | New automatic bottle washer. NS 15/11/1965 | |
| 1967 | NSW Aerated Water Co acquired by Schweppes Australia. NMH 10/11/1967 | |
| 1983 | Factory closed. NH 31/08/1983 | Factory closed. NH 08/09/1983 |
A friend recently asked me about the naming of Croudace Road in Elermore Vale.
There is a Croudace Street in Lambton, named after Thomas Croudace, the first manager of the Lambton colliery. Thomas was also the reason for the naming of Croudace Bay, as he bought land and built a house in that locality. Presumably Croudace Road in Tingira Heights has a similar connection, being a road leading towards Croudace Bay. But what was the connection that led to the naming of Croudace Road in the Wallsend area? The answer turns out to be not Thomas, but his son Sydney.
Sydney Croudace was born in Lambton about 1874, the third son of Thomas and Christina Croudace. He was educated at The King’s School, Parramatta, and then followed his father into a coal mining career. At a comparatively early age he became manager of the Scottish Australian Mining Company’s B pit (also known as the Durham or Lambton B pit) at Redhead. In February 1913 he was appointed manager of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company’s pit at Wallsend.
In August 1915, while he was manager, the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company registered a subdivision of a large area of their land with Deposited Plan 8479.
The subdivision, of approximately 1500 acres, covered the area between Wallsend, New Lambton and Cardiff. An area of about 50 acres was excluded from the middle of the subdivision, as this was the location of the Jubilee Shaft of the coal company. (More on this shaft later in this article.) The first land sale in DP8479 was to Henry Hancock for Lot 60 on 24 July 1916.
Just a few months after registering the subdivision, Sydney Croudace resigned as manager of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company in December 1915 due to ill-health. The employees of the mine held a farewell dinner for Sydney Croudace, with both the office staff and the miners bestowing effusive praise upon him. By 1921 Croudace’s health had recovered sufficiently that he was able to resume the position of manager in February 1921.
By this time about 40 of the 94 lots in the subdivision had been sold. In July 1921 the residents in the northern part of the subdivision, known as Chinaman’s Flat, lobbied Wallsend Council to change the the name of their suburb, and to also set names for their as yet unlabelled streets.
Chinaman’s Flat is by no means a high-sounding title for a progressive suburb. The residents of No. 2 subdivision, which is situated on the Lake road, near Wallsend, think it should be changed to something more Australian. They have asked Wallsend Council, through the Lake-road and Cardiff Progress Association, to erase the name of Chinaman’s Flat from all official records, and that the streets be named according to a list they supplied. South Wallsend was suggested as more appropriate. Alderman England said that the name certainly acted to the detriment of the place, and visitors were not favorably impressed who might otherwise have entertained the idea of purchasing land there. The names suggested are: Jubilee-street, Cardiff-road, Scott-street, Lake-road, Croudace-road, Smith-street and Watkin-street. The council agreed to all of the requests on condition that they be called roads.
The Newcastle Sun, 29 July 1921.
Ministerial approval for the naming of Croudace, Smith, Watkin, Jubilee, and Scott Roads was received in December 1921.
Sydney Croudace finished as manager of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company in October 1928, and moved to a property in Brighton Avenue, Toronto where he lived until his death on 3 February 1935 at the age of 61. Co-incidentally, his death came just one week after shareholders of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company voted to cease operations at the Wallsend Colliery that Croudace had managed for ten years.
In the ensuing years the suburb adjacent to his namesake road was variously called “South Wallsend” and “Wallsend South” in equal measure.
On 14 November 1975, the suburb name was officially changed to “Elermore Vale”, probably in reference to the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company’s “A pit” that opened in Wallsend in 1859, which was also known as the “Elermore Vale Colliery”.
In 1887 in the year of Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company sunk a new shaft to assist with ventilation of their mine, and named it the Jubilee Shaft. It was located inside the area that was later subdivided in 1915 as DP8479, and thus was excluded from that subdivision.
In the early 1930s the Wallsend Colliery struggled to be profitable, and in November 1934 the owners advertised the colliery for sale or lease. When no acceptable offers eventuated, the shareholders voted in January 1935 to close the mine and sell off the colliery plant, machinery, waggons and railway. Surplus equipment from the Jubilee shaft was sold at auction in May 1935. The land in the vicinity of the shaft then began to be subdivided and sold off, however a smaller parcel of land around the shaft was retained by the coal company.
After the closure in 1935, the coal seams were worked by various tribute collieries until 1968, when the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company resumed operations at Wallsend under the new name of “Gretley Colliery”. The name was a combination of two coal seams the company was mining – the Greta Seam in their Pelton and Ellalong mines, and the Dudley seam they were working at Wallsend. In November 1996 tragedy struck at Gretley mine when four miners were drowned by a sudden inrush of water when they inadvertently broke through to flooded abandoned workings adjacent to the Gretley workings. The error was due to the mine having been supplied with incorrect plans of the old workings by the Department of Mineral Resources. Work at Gretley was immediately suspended. In 1999 Gretley was bought by New Wallsend Coal Pty Ltd, who operated the workings as “New Wallsend No. 2 Colliery.”
A partial history of the Jubilee Shaft site can be seen in the photo below, the sign on the enclosing fence shows “Gretley Colliery” overstamped with “New Wallsend Coal Pty Ltd, New Wallsend No. 2 Colliery.” At the bottom of the sign, the words “Mine Ventilation Shaft” are just visible.
In 2021 Newcastle Council approved a development application for the construction of a 50 lot Community Title subdivision on the former Jubilee Shaft site. The development will retain some of the remnant Jubilee Shaft sandstone building walls in a community area
In the original iteration of this blog post I posed the question of why there is a Croudace Street in Edgeworth? Thanks to a note on page 138 of Ed Tonks’ 1990 book “Wallsend and Pelton Collieries. A Chronology of The Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company”, I have the answer.
That area of Edgeworth has five north-south streets, all named after prominent colliery managers of the Newcastle district when that subdivision was created in 1885.
Edgeworth was originally called “Young Wallsend”, and the subdivision created by John Charles Bonarius was described by the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate on 16 May 1885 …
The subdivision has been laid out by Mr. Percy Hodgkinson, of this city, whose abilities in laying a township are well known to everyone in the district, and is under the supervision of Mr. John C. Bonarius, our oldest and well-esteemed auctioneer, who will wield the hammer at the sale. The streets are plainly seen. Large posts, with the names Neilson, Fletcher, Croudace, Turnbull, Thomas, and other notables connected with the coal trade of Northumberland are seen.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 16 May 1885.
A real estate poster advertising the sale of the subdivision was produced, but with Neilson and Johnson spelled incorrectly.
The naming of Johnson St is uncertain. It possibly refers to R Johnson who was the manager of the Glebe colliery.
| Article Date Event Date | Notes |
|---|---|
| 7 Feb 1913 | Sydney Croudace appointed manager of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company's Wallsend Colliery. |
| 6 Dec 1915 4 Dec 1915 | Retirement due to ill-health of Sydney Croudace as manager of Wallsend colliery. "There was a large attendance at the Masonic Hall, Wallsend, on Saturday evening, when Mr. S. Croudace, who for the last three years has occupied the position of manager of the Wallsend Colliery, was entertained by the employees of the colliery, and presented with marks of their esteem and appreciation." |
| 2 Feb 1921 | "Mr. S. Croudace will succeed Mr. N. J. Clark as colliery manager of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company." (Croudace returns to the position he previously resigned from due to ill-health.) |
| 29 Jul 1921 | Residents of "Chinaman's Flat" request that their suburb be renamed to "South Wallsend", and suggest names for a number of their roads. |
| 17 Dec 1921 | "Ministerial approval having now been received, it is notified for public information that the un-named roads in the South Wallsend subdivision, otherwise known as Chinaman Flat Subdivision, will be designated as follows: Croudace-road, Smith-road, Watkin-road, Jubilee-road, Scott-road." |
| 13 Oct 1928 10 Oct 1928 | "Mr. Sydney Croudace on Wednesday terminated his second period of service with Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company as manager of Wallsend colliery." |
| 23 Nov 1934 | Advertisement for sale or lease of Wallsend Colliery. |
| 25 Jan 1935 24 Jan 1935 | "At the annual general meeting of shareholders of the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company held yesterday it was decided to cease operations at the company's Wallsend colliery owing to heavy losses incurred during the past six years and the uncertainty of the future." |
| 4 Feb 1935 3 Feb 1935 | Death of Sydney Croudace, in Toronto, aged 61. |
| 16 Feb 1935 | "Hopes of a reopening of Wallsend Colliery, commonly known as Wallsend C Pit, have been shattered … dismantling and removal to the surface of the underground appliances and plant of the colliery. … The mine is to be abandoned." |
| 18 Feb 1935 | "Wallsend citizens who have been hoping for an 11th-hour sale of the colliery property, or for a lease which would allow a resumption of operations, are beginning to despair as they realise the latest definite steps Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Company has adopted to seal the doom of Wallsend C pit. For three-quarters of a century the coal company has been operating at one or another of the branches of its Wallsend mine. Wallsend without a Wallsend colliery is to many people almost unthinkable." |
| 2 May 1935 | Sale of equipment from the closed Jubilee Shaft in Wallsend. |
| 16 Dec 1953 | "Newcastle Council Works Committee recommended last night that the council alter the name of Lundy-street, Wallsend, between Lake-road and Croudace-street, to Jubilee-road. The City Engineer (Mr. Baddeley) said a month had passed since the council proposed to alter the name. It had been publicised and no objection had been received." |
| 14 Nov 1975 | The suburb name "Elermore Vale" is officially gazetted. |
In 1924 the Scottish Australian Mining Company, owners of the Lambton colliery, made plans to subdivide several hundred acres of their land to form a new suburb. To make the estate appealing to potential purchasers, the company constructed a new station on the Great Northern Railway that ran through the middle of their development.
Both the suburb and the station were originally intended to be named “Exton”. However, the Railway Commissioners, concerned that the name was too similar to other existing stations, chose instead the name “Kotara”, the Awabakal word for a hunting club. To avoid confusion, the developers then agreed to rename their subdivision to match the station.
For the first sale of land, held on site on Saturday 17 January 1925, the agents Creer and Berkeley produced a 40-page booklet with panoramic photos, glowing prose for the suburb, and praise for the new station.
“In order that every facility might be afforded to the residents of Kotara, a modern Railway Island Platform, 520ft in length, has been constructed in the Heart of the Suburb, and a regular service is maintained between Newcastle, the other Suburbs, and the Lake.”
In 1925 there were twelve train services each day, but as the platform was unstaffed, travellers faced the inconvenience of having to alight at the next station on the line to purchase tickets.
A century later, Kotara station is largely unchanged. There are now 25 train services each weekday, but a very low patronage of 90 passengers a day. This may change if the state government delivers on their recently announced “Transported Oriented Development Program”, which aims to streamline the development of mid-rise housing (up to 6 storeys) within 400 metres of selected railway stations, including Kotara.
In examining the birth of Kotara 100 years ago, it is interesting to note how the development of housing and the provision of public transport occurred together. Now that’s a practice from the past I’d love to see followed in the future.
The article above was first published in the October 2024 edition of The Local.
For the current day passenger numbers at Kotara Station, I used the Train and Metro Station Monthly Usage numbers from the NSW government Open Data website. This showed that entries and exits totalled 2747 for the month of July 2024. This equates to an average of 89 trips per day, to or from the station.
As early as July 1922 there were reports that the Scottish Australian Mining Company planned to subdivide their land adjoining the Tickhole Tunnel of the Great Northern Railway. By October 1923, plans had been drawn up for the subdivision. In 1924 the Kotara Railway Station was constructed, and the streets of the new subdivision prepared, in readiness for the initial big land sale to take place on Saturday 17 January 1925.
The plans have been prepared for the Scottish-Australian Mining Company of a subdivision of about 200 blocks of land contiguous to the railway line on both sides. For many years eyes have been cast on this area, which lies between the Adamstown railway station and the Tickhole tunnel, and is within easy distance of the city. The design of the big subdivision conforms with the new ideas planning for model suburbs, and provision has been made for park areas, children’s playgrounds, street gardens, plantations, and other recreative utilities. The company has entered into an agreement with the Railway Commissioners for the erection of a railway platform to serve the area.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 17 October 1923.
Although the initial reports of the auction on 17 January 1925 stated that “160 lots were disposed of in about two hours”, the land wasn’t formally sold at this time, it was just people signing up with intention to purchase. At that time New Lambton Council (the municipality in which the land was located) still hadn’t formally approved the subdivision, being in dispute with the developer about various matters including access to Charlestown Road, and the width of the main streets in the subdivision. After resolving matters, New Lambton council finally approved the subdivision in May 1925. The deposited plan DP13333 for the subdivision was lodged with the Department of Lands on 27 August 1925.
Transfers of title arising from land sales in the subdivision subsequently appear in Volume-Folios 905-119, 3878-122, 4350-65, and 5604-172. The first transfer recorded is for Lot 97 Sec A to Leslie Arthur Fitness on 15 September 1925, and the final transfer was for Lot 51 Section B to Thomas Egginton on 21 October 1953.
Despite the January 1925 article reporting that 160 lots had been sold, actual sales and transfers of title occurred over a very long period of time. Examination of the land title records shows that it took until 1944 before 160th lot sold. How much of this delay was due to slowness in purchasers finalising their transaction, and much due to purchases foregoing/forfeiting their lot due to economic pressures is uncertain.
| Article Date Event Date | Notes |
|---|---|
| 26 Jul 1922 | "At the present time the Scottish-Australian Company and the Kinnaird Land Syndicate are about to subdivide their estates adjoining the Tickhole Tunnel, and property running between New Lambton and Tickhole Tunnel and Charlestown. This property is most ideal for suburban residences, being four miles from the Broadmendow station, and served by two railways, the Sydney line and the Waratah coal line. At the present time it is anticipated that the Scottish-Australian Company will build a railway station on their land between Adamstown and the Charlestown Tunnel and then subdivide." |
| 17 Oct 1923 | "The plans have been prepared for the Scottish-Australian Mining Company of a subdivision of about 200 blocks of land contiguous to the railway line on both sides … The company has entered into an agreement with the Railway Commissioners for the erection of a railway platform." |
| 3 Oct 1924 | "It is authoritatively stated that the name of the station in connection with the new subdivision at present known as Exton has been altered to Kotara. This has been brought about by the suggestion of the Lands Department and the Railway Commissioners. The vendors of the estate, the Scottish-Australian Mining Company, Limited, having undertaken the cost of the construction of a new station, desired to have it named Exton in keeping with the township, but the departments pointed out the similarity to the name of other stations and the possibility of confusion arising. They suggested a native name, and with a view of obtaining something appropriate the agents. Messrs. Creer and Berkeley, enlisted the services of Mr. J. J. Moloney, who submitted a long list of local aboriginal names, from which Kotara was finally chosen. The construction work of the railway platform will be finished in a few weeks, and its train service will be of considerable advantage to all those people living on the northern side of Cardiff, at Charlestown, and the south-western side of New Lambton or Orchardtown, as it is more familiarly known." |
| 9 Oct 1924 8 Oct 1924 | New Lambton Council meeeting … "Correspondence was received from S.A.M. Company, stating that as the Railway Commissioners had decided to call the railway station situated near Cardiff tunnel, in their subdivision, Katara (sic), they had renamed the subdivision Katara in lieu of Exton. The Mayor said that the Railway Commissioners had acted discourteously in not conferring with the council re the naming of the station." |
| 10 Nov 1924 | "The new railway station at Kotara, on the Newcastle to Sydney line, has been completed by a Scottish-Australian mining company. The cost was borne solely by the company which, however, may be compensated after three years by the Commissioners if traffic justifies it. The new station is situated between Adamstown and the Cardiff tunnel, and will serve a fairly large population. The necessary overhead bridges have been erected, and the platform is of island design." |
| 19 Nov 1924 | "The new railway station at Kotara is already being availed of, as certain trains from Toronto are stopping there." |
| 16 Jan 1925 17 Jan 1925 | "Kotara, the newly subdivided suburb of Newcastle, has been the object of considerable interest for some time past amongst land speculators and investors generally. The sale of the land will be conducted to-morrow (Saturday), by Messrs. Creer and Berkeley. Easy terms of payment have been arranged, and the sale should be a big success." |
| 20 Jan 1925 17 Jan 1925 | "One of the most successful land subdivision sales held in this district was that of Kotara, conducted by Messrs. Creer and Berkeley, on Saturday afternoon last. The result evidences the importance of transit. The vendors, the Scottish-Australian Mining Company, Limited, realising this, undertook the responsibility of having a railway station erected in the centre of the estate. This convenience, a run of only 19 minutes from the central station, Newcastle, with a service of some 12 trains a day, each way, was no doubt a great factor in attracting upwards of 600 people to the sale, when 160 lots were disposed of in about two hours." |
| 30 Jan 1925 29 Jan 1925 | "A well-attended meeting of purchasers of land at Kotara was held last night at the rooms of Messrs. Creer and Berkeley, when a progress committee was formed. The meeting prepared a lengthy agenda of work and improvements to be effected, and the association will particularly watch the parks, railway facilities, supply of water, gas and electric light, and generally assist home builders to embrace modern ideas in keeping with a district so full of residential possibilities." |
| 10 Feb 1925 | "New Lambton Council is not satisfied with the plans for the subdivision of portion of the Scottish-Australian Mining Company's Estate at Kotara … The plans did not provide for any outlet to Charlestown-road … the council would insist on the main road being 22 feet wide, instead of 16 feet." |
| 8 May 1925 | "The Kotara Estate subdivision has at last received the legal approval of New Lambton Council. For a considerable time the finalising has been held up, although the greater part of the subdivision has been sold." |
| 22 May 1925 | "As [Kotara] is gradually growing in importance, and trains are being stopped to pick up and set down passengers, the regulations that tickets must be got at Adamstown is becoming more and more irksome. The other morning half a dozen persons, who got into the train at Kotara, had to alight at Adamstown to get their tickets en route to Newcastle. The train, in consequence, was delayed for about two minutes." |
| 29 May 1925 | "The monthly meeting of the Kotara Progress Association was held last night … the vendors of the estate, the Scottish-Australian Mining Company, Limited, set aside large areas for park and recreation purposes, and it is the planting and improvement of these reserves that is engaging attention." |
| 30 Sep 1925 | "One of the biggest residential estate developments in the Newcastle district was inaugurated at the beginning of this year, when the Kotara subdivision was made available. It comprises several hundred acres, lying between Adamstown railway station and Tickhole tunnel, five miles from Newcastle. The first sale in the estate was conducted on January 17 by Messrs. Creer and Berkeley acting for the Scottish-Australian Mining Company. There were 191 allotments offered and over 160 were sold on the day. The success of the sale was largely due to the enterprise of the vendors. About three miles of streets had been made, and a railway island platform 520 feet in length constructed in the centre of the new suburb. With the object of assisting in the development of the suburb, purchasers of blocks formed a progress association, which now has a membership of between 70 and 80." |
The project to build a new basketball stadium on Wallarah and Blackley Ovals has now been listed on the NSW government’s Major Projects Planning Portal. I had a quick skim through the available documents, and two things stuck out.
Firstly, the Scoping Report has a section on Community Engagement, that has a list of stakeholders that Newcastle Basketball has “undertaken consultation with to inform the project planning.” Conspicuously missing from this list are the two groups that will be most negatively impacted by the project.
I am at a loss to decide whether these omissions are due to incompetence, error, conflict avoidance, or deliberate action to keep the community in the dark.
The second item that caught my eye, was in the “Heritage NSW Advice on SEARs” document, which states that “the site does not contain any known historical archeological relics.” During World War 2, the site of Wallarah Oval contained four gun emplacements, as shown in the 1944 aerial photograph below.
As recently as 2014, aerial photographs show parch marks that hint that some remnant of these gun emplacements may still be under the surface. The extent and significance of these remains is uncertain.
Update, November 2024: After the initial writing of this blog post, additional documents were made available on the project portal, including “Appendix HH – Historical Archaeological Assessment” which does include details of the WW2 gun emplacements, which apparently were dummy guns.