Happy Flat

Happy Flat was an early name for Hamilton. Sometimes it was used to mean the whole of Hamilton, but more usually the name referred to one of three localities in the Hamilton area, the other two being Borehole and Pit Town.

The first mention of Happy Flat is in 1857, as the location where the A. A. Company was sinking a new pit.

The A. A. Company commenced on Saturday last operations for sinking a new pit on a portion of their estate known as Happy Flat, on the Wallaby ground, and situate between Newcastle and their Bore Hole pit. This new sinking will be in close proximity with their tramway leading from the Bore Hole.
Empire, 19 May 1857.

The last contemporaneous use of “Happy Flat” in the newspaper was in 1884, when Mr J C Ellis, the Member of Parliament for Newcastle, in his speech at the opening of Plattsburg school said that …

In his own electorate, at Happy Flat (Hamilton), for instance, there was a greater number of children, and they only had a small building as a schoolhouse.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 5 May 1884.

Decades later as various people recalled the early days of Hamilton, the location of Happy Flat was stated slightly differently.

Between Beaumont-street and Steel street was ‘Pittown,’ where the homes of a number of the miners had been built. ‘Happy Flat,’ so named, probably, on account of the genial disposition of the old dwellers in that ilk, was in a southerly direction.
The Newcastle Sun, 9 December 1921.

Hamilton in its earliest days was divided into three sections, viz., Borehole, now Cameron’s Hill ; Beaumont to Lawson street was designated Happy Flat; and James and Lindsay streets were called Pittown.
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 9 December 1921.

From Hamilton station to James-street in those early days was called Pittown; from James street to Denison-street “Happy Flat,” and where the Garden Suburb now is was “Borehole.”
Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 11 February 1933.

A key piece of information in establishing the location of Happy Flat is a February 1858 notice from the Australian Agricultural Company stating their intention to construct a railroad at Newcastle. The route description contains a number of references to the “Lake Macquarie Road”, which is quite confusing until you correlate it with a 1954 A. A. Company map that shows the road to Lake Macquarie meandering westwards from Newcastle through their estate.

Portion of 1854 AA Company map showing the road to Lake Macquarie, and the Borehole colliery tramway. Australian National University.

Note that the straight line marked with 2¼ miles is not the railroad proposed in 1858, but an earlier tramway, as described in 1857.

The colliery tramway is about two miles and a quarter in length. It has been worked with horse-power for five or six years. The cost per ton for horses’ food, and wear and tear, inclusive of the maintenance of the permanent way, was about three-pence a ton. New rails of sixty-eight pounds are now being laid, and locomotive power is employed. This will be much cheaper and will require less attendance.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 December 1857.

The new railroad, as proposed in 1858, was said to proceed …

… along the existing line of Railway [tramway] twenty-six and a half chains, crossing the Lake Macquarie Road at a place called the Happy Flat, one hundred and six chains to the present crossing of the Burwood Tramroad …
New South Wales Government Gazette, 15 Feb 1868.

In the map above I have indicated with a blue arrow where the railway crosses the Lake Macquarie Road at Happy Flat, and with a red arrow the “crossing of the Burwood Tramroad.” Overlaying the map into Google Earth confirms that this distance is very close to the “one hundred and six chains” (2332 yards) stated in the Gazette notice, and therefore places Happy Flat in the vicinity of Lawson and Veda Streets.

Combining all the evidence together, the image below shows the described locations of Happy Flat.

Happy Flat was variously described as 1. South of the land between Beaumont St and Steel St (yellow). 2. Between Beaumont St and Lawson St (pink). 3. Between James St and Denison St. (blue). 4. At the intersection of AA Company railway and road to Lake Macquarie (red star) OpenStreetMap

[Side note: A 1954 newspaper article states that Happy Flat was where the Hamilton Railway Station now is. I am highly doubtful about this location as it is contradictory to all the other available evidence.]

Happy Valley

The name “Happy Valley” was sometimes used as an alternative for Happy Flat, although all the references seem to be exclusively from the 20th century. This suggests the name was not used in the 19th century and was just being misremembered by people in the 20th century.

20 December 1907 – Hamilton “was known as Borehole, Pittown, and Happy Valley”
1 April 1938 – “Happy Valley was in a more southerly direction” from Pit Town
18 February 1953 – Hamilton “was then called Borehole. The area had a couple of suburbs (near Beaumont St.), Pitt Town and another called Happy Valley, perhaps down Glebe way.”

There was a locality in the 1870s called Happy Valley, near Belmont. There was also a Happy Valley Colliery somewhere in Merewether. This was a very small affair, with the government annual Mining Reports listing the colliery having just one person employed in 1920, 8 in 1921, and 19 in 1925.

Happy Valley Colliery was located under the hill to the south of Merewether. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

This page is part of the collection of Newcastle’s Obsolete Place Names.

YY Aerated Water

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 YY factory in Verulam Road, Lambton. Photo from Lost Newcastle Facebook group.

The former YY factory building still stands in Lambton today.

The article above was first published in the November 2024 edition of The Local.

Additional Information

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.

YY Aerated Water Co

Purchase of land in Verulam Road Lambton, 17 January 1959.Vol-Fol 4758-152.

NSW Aerated Water Co/Schweppes

Purchase of land in Orlando Rd Lambton, 28 October 1953. Vol-Fol 6014-246.

The former Schweppes soft drink factory building in 2024. The brick office building in front of the arched factory was demolished sometime between 1987 and 1993.

Newspaper articles

No entries found.

Tudor St, Hamilton

While browsing the University of Newcastle’s collection of Ralph Snowball photos, I came across a picture of construction work, with the inscription of “Hamilton Park – 13.10.1911”. It wasn’t immediately clear from the photo what work was being done, but after some searching of Trove I established that it was the construction of sewer mains in the streets of Hamilton. A newspaper article from 3rd August 1911 reports

“Out at Hamilton West the main sewer is being put down at a depth of 16ft. The ground there is a sort of bluish clay, and although it has to be cut out like so much putty, it does not present anything like the same trouble that the sand at the eastern end of the municipality does. Here, as in Denison street, centrifugal pumps, electrically driven, deal with the water, and the current is supplied from the city council’s power-house.

There are 130 men at work in Hamilton East and 61 in Hamilton West. About half of these were coal-miners, and they are doing very well at the new class of work.”

Construction of sewer main, Tudor St Hamilton, 13th October 1911. Photo by Ralph Snowball. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

The approximate location of the 1911 photo can be established by taking note of the distinctive façade of the building at 5 Belford St Hamilton. From this it would appear that the photo is taken in Tudor St, somewhere between Blackall St and Samdon St, looking towards the east.

The 1911 photo is inscribed with “Hamilton Park”, which was the name of a new subdivision of building allotments to the west of Hamilton Park, now Gregson Park.

Hamilton Park Estate sale poster. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

Mechanics’ Institute, Hamilton

A few months ago when I was doing research for my article on the Lambton Mechanics’ Institute, I came across this old photo of the Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute.

Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute, Tudor and Milton Streets, 8 February 1892. Photo by Ralph Snowball. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

On driving down Tudor St I was somewhat saddened to find that this marvellous building was almost unrecognisable in its current drab utilitarian state, with the beautiful verandahs gone, and the symmetry of the building mutilated by uninspired additions. I wished that someone would restore it to its former glory.

The former Hamilton Mechanics' Institute transformed into drabness. Image from Google StreetView.

Then last week as I was driving down Tudor St I noticed some scaffolding up around the building, and wondered what was happening.

Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute Building, February 2017.

My question was answered in the Newcastle Herald yesterday where I was very excited to learn that local firm DJB Developments are renovating the buildings there into a 33 apartment complex. This looks fantastic, with the Mechanics Institute building restored to its former symmetry and beauty, and with a clear separation of old and new. I sincerely hope that the restoration turns out to be as good as it looks in the plans.

The DJB Developments website has a little bit about the history of the old building, and the architect Frederick Menkens, which is worth a read. It turns out there is a slight connection with Lambton, in that the electrical contractor Harry Hyde Kingsbury who sued Menkens in1895 and caused him to be sent to jail for 12 months, was the contractor who installed the electric lighting plant in Lambton in 1890.

Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute Building, December 2024.

Hamilton Mechanics’ Institute Building, December 2024, looking very much like Snowball’s 1892 photo below.

Hamilton Council

Ruth Cotton, in her Hidden Hamilton blog has a good summary of the history of Hamilton Council.

Hamilton Council was incorporated on 11th December 1871. The first meeting of the council was held on 13th February 1871, in the building known as the Mechanics’ Institute. Over the years Hamilton had a number of municipal council buildings.

Hamilton Council Chambers 1880. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

In the photo below from the University of Newcastle Living Histories site, the building has two different dates

“Municipal Chambers – 1880”
“Enlarged – Prepared For Town Hall – 1892”

Hamilton Council Chambers. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

Hamilton Council Chambers. Newcastle Morning Herald, 21 May 1938.

The new building at the former location of the Hamilton Municipal Council building. March 2016. — The new building at the former location of the Hamilton Municipal Council building. A replica of the clock tower was incorporated into the new building. March 2016.

Questions yet to be answered

Where was the the Mechanic’s Institute building where the 17 Feb 1872 newspaper article says the first council meeting was held?
The photo of 70 James Street Hamilton (in Newcastle Libraries Online Collection) is where early council meetings were held. Is this the same site as the current 70 James St? (Bearing in mind that renumbering of streets is not an uncommon event.)
Where exactly was the 1880 council chambers located?
Is the 1892 council chambers in the same spot? If so, why does it look so different from the 1880 chambers?

Then drain, again drain

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Lachlan Wetherall

Although I didn’t intend it when I set out, a bike ride with my son around town today ended up visiting various sites in Newcastle matching the old photos in my previous drain article. Here’s the “Then and Now” comparisons.

Broadmeadow drain

Drain construction workers at Broadmeadow, NSW, 6 April 1900

The stormwater drain at Hamilton North, March 2017.

Update, March 2017: With subsequent research I have found that the location of the 1900 Snowball photo was Hamilton North, not Broadmeadow.

The Premier Hotel

Premier Hotel, Broadmeadow, 1892. Photo by Ralph Snowball. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

View of the lowlands from Glebe Road

The Newcastle lowlands. 1897. Photo taken from intersection of Beaumont St and Glebe Rd looking north towards Hamilton. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

Looking north from Glebe Rd towards Hamilton. 6th February 2016.

This modern view bears almost no resemblance to the 1897 photo, with the previously deserted lowlands now covered with trees, suburbia and industry. The only visible match (apart from Beaumont St sloping down the hill) is a spire of St Peter’s Anglican church in Denison St Hamilton.

It seems that at some time the church has lost one of its spires.

The drain explain

Back in 2014 a change of residence meant that my bicycle commute to work changed to a route that took me alongside long stretches of the concrete drains that spider across the low lying Newcastle suburbs. For 85% of my commute to work I am within 200 metres of one of the concrete drains, or Throsby Creek.

In a recent conversation with a friend when I mentioned this, they responded with some expression of sympathy and sadness that I had to endure such an ugly travelling companion. As I reflected on this reaction I realised that although the drains are not exactly the most aesthetic feature of our city, there are a number of positives.Firstly, cycling alongside the drains offers relative serenity, in comparison to busy roads. Secondly, the drains often attract a variety of bird life – ducks, ibises, some other kinds of birds, the black and white ones, the fast darting ones, as well as those little fluttery ones. (As much as I like birds, you might correctly guess I’m no ornithologist!)

In thinking about the concrete drains I’ve also been pondering their principal purpose – to drain away water. In the downpours of January 2016 I saw this fully in action, and recorded this video of the drain in Broadmeadow near the rescue helicopter base.

It got me thinking. How much water was being carried away each second? Stepping through the frames on the video I was able to see that it took 2.94 seconds for the flow to pass from one concrete seam in the drain to the next. A visit to the drain a few weeks later (when it was dry) to take some measurements revealed the following.

Distance between cracks:	9.1m
Average width of drain:	13.4m
Average depth of drain:	1.6m
Cross sectional area:	21.44m²
Water velocity:	3.1 m/s
Flow volume (cubic metres per sec):	66.4 m³/s

That’s 66 thousand litres per second. Impressive. Or to put it another way, since a standard size Olympic swimming pool contains 2.5 million litres, the waterway at this point is capable of draining an Olympic sized swimming pool every 38 seconds.

Drain dimensions — Broadmeadow drain measurements.

[ Note that all these measurements and calculations are ‘back of the envelope’, ‘ballpark figures’ for the purpose of gaining a broad sense of the capabilities of the drain, and not a precise hydrological survey. ]

I’ve also been pondering the economic benefit of these drains. Prior to their construction from 1895 onwards, the lowlands of Newcastle were regularly turned into a useless boggy swampland. A 1892 description of Broadmeadow states that:

“When there are heavy rains the water comes down in such a way as to flood the streets and property, the water being sometimes 12 and 18 inches deep on the streets.”

Premier Hotel in Broadmeadow surrounded by flood waters in 1892. Photo by Ralph Snowball. University of Newcastle, Living Histories.

The 1897 Ralph Snowball photograph below looking from Glebe Rd Merewether across to Hamilton graphically illustrates the large plain of unused and unusable land, and with the roads suffering significant water erosion.

Even as construction was progressing the economic benefit of drainage was clear to see, with an 1897 newspaper report on the extension of the system into Adamstown noting that:

“Its construction will prove a great boon to those residing on the lowlands, and should increase the value of property materially.”

The question then is what is the area of the “lowlands” that are emptied by the drainage system? Browsing the altitude data in Google Earth, and observing the landscape around town, 15 metres above sea level seems to be the inflection point where a gradual rise in elevation across the plains changes to a steeper inclinaton of the surrounding hills and ridges. Using Google Earth I marked with yellow lines the concrete drains, and mapped out in blue the area of the drainage basin that is 15m or less above sea level. This area totalled approximately 1850 hectares. [ KML file viewable in Google Earth ]

[ Note, as before, this mapping is a rough approximation for the purpose of gaining a broad sense of the capabilities of the drainage system, and not a precise hydrological survey. ]

Newcastle concrete drain system. Area shaded blue is 15m or less above sea level.

As an aside, when I first viewed the map of the drains against the shaded lowlands, it immediately struck me that there is a large area centred on Hamilton that has no open concrete drains, and my recollection is that in the June 2007 Pasha Bulker storm, Hamilton was one of the main areas of flooding. Coincidence or not? I don’t know, as I keep reminding you, I’m not a hydrologist.

Nor am I an economist. With that final disclaimer out of the way I can now ask, how much is all that land worth? What is the monetary value of the land made productive by the open concrete drain system? As an example of land values, the NSW Valuer General shows that in 2015 a 424 m²area of land in Hamilton North had a value of $327,000. This equates to $771 per square meter, or $7.7 million per hectare. If we assume that only 75% of the 1850 hectares is usable (allowing for roads, creeks, etc) then the total land value of the lowlands shaded in the map above is … 10.7 billion dollars!

So the next time you pass one of those ‘ugly’ concrete drains … give a bit of respect.

For more drain related musings, check out Mark Maclean’s Hamilton North blog.

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}

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