On 1 October 1936, Thomas Alfred Braye presented a paper on the history of Waratah and its early settlers, to the Newcastle & Hunter District Historical Society. The Hunter Living Histories site has a scanned PDF of the transcript of the talk, and while it has had Optical Character Recognition applied, the resulting text is less than desired. I have done a full text correction which I reproduce below, to provide a more accessible and searchable version of this excellent talk. I have also added images and maps at relevant points in the transcript, and links to other web pages.
Braye’s talk was principally confined to the area within or adjacent to “the Municipal boundaries of Waratah”, which covers all or parts of the following suburbs today:
- Georgetown
- Mayfield
- Mayfield East
- Mayfield North
- Mayfield West
- Sandgate
- Warabrook
- Waratah
- Waratah West
In reading Braye’s words I am impressed with how carefully and eloquently he cites his sources and assigns relevant levels of confidence. For example he notes that he had “no authentic records which can be referred to earlier than 1860″, and therefore had to rely on testimony from older residents. Even in this realm when it comes to details of John Laurio Platt he is careful to note that the information is one further step removed – still worth recording, but inviting caution.
At the time my enquiries were made, he [Platt] had been dead just on 60 years, and as my informants were men between 60 and 70 years of age, they could have only been children at the time of his death, and there was no one who had any personal recollection of him, and all that they could tell me about him was what they had learned from others older than themselves many years before.
Braye’s Talk
I account myself as happy in being permitted the privilege of speaking before your Society on the early history of Waratah, my birthplace. At the same time, I am unhappy in the fact that there are no authentic records which can be referred to earlier than 1860 which may be consulted regarding the Settlement in the area known as Waratah, and which show the reasons for a very rapid settlement of population after 1860.
What I give to-night is information garnered by me from older people as far back as 45 years ago, as I endeavoured to learn everything that I possibly could of the earliest known facts relating to the Settlement at Waratah, Most of the men from whom I obtained my information were at the time approaching 70 years, Two of them, particularly, were natives of Newcastle. How reliable that information was I cannot say, but such as I have obtained it I give it to you.
I am taking, for the purposes of this lecture, as the district of Waratah, the Municipal boundaries of Waratah. I have a plan here from which you will see the area that is known as the Municipal District of Waratah. You will observe that it starts at Port Waratah, runs along what was the old Waratah Company’s railway line to the Waratah Crossing below Georgetown, and thence for a distance of about three miles to the Wallsend Coal Co.’s railway line, and then along that line to the junction with the main Northern line, and from there down on the Southern side of the main Northern line to a point about a chain from the Waratah Railway Goods Shed, and thence by a line running a distance of about 1¼ miles northerly to the Hunter River, and from thence along the southern bank of the river to Port Waratah, embracing an area in all of about 2,800 acres, with an extreme distance from tip to tip of about four miles.
Within that area of recent years many subdivisions have been made, all bearing distinctive names. Most of them are comparatively modern, as in my childhood’s day we only knew the following: Waratah, North Waratah, Port Waratah, The Folly, Calcina Flat, Georgetown and The Commonage. This will probably surprise the residents of Mayfield, but it is a fact nevertheless – the Subdivision known as Mayfield in its origin about the year 1881 was a very circumscribed area, bounded on the West by Kerr Street, on the North by Crebert Street, and on the East by a line about five chains from Church Street southerly to the Maitland Road, and along the Maitland Road back to Kerr Street, in all an area of 29 acres.
As to how the district got the name “Waratah” is not very clear, but when I come to speak of Simpson’s Grant, the time and circumstances under which the name arose will be detailed. The explanation given to me was that the locality which we knew as “North Waratah” was the most northerly point in Australia where the Waratah flower grew in a state of nature. Although years ago I asked many old people of my acquaintance if they had ever seen the Waratah growing there, I never met one who had, but it is not unlikely from the sandy, loamy nature of the soil to the northern side of Bull Street that somewhere about there the Waratah did grow. Botanically it is stated that the Waratah grew from the Hunter River southward into Victoria and Tasmania, but never north of the Hunter River. Therefore, it is highly probable that North Waratah was truly the most northerly point of its growth. Of the area embraced in the district, grants of land were from time to time made by the Crown to various persons until the year 1863 the Government reserved the remaining Crown lands within the southern portion of the district from selection, and proclaimed it The Newcastle Pasturage Reserve. The reason, I believe, that actuated the then Government in this was the fact that cattle and sheep were being brought from inland for shipment to New Zealand during the Maori Wars, and as they had to wait some time for shipment, the whole of the Crown lands, not only in Waratah but in other adjoining districts, were proclaimed a Reserve, and reserved from selection, but before this proclamation at least three men had selected under the 1861 Crown Lands Act, areas right at the South-western portion of the Municipal District.
I now come to the first settler in the district, namely John Laurio Platt. There seems to be a woeful lack of authentic Information concerning him, and he does not appear to have actively interested himself in Newcastle affairs to any extent that there is any record of, otherwise more must have been known of him. Probably he was too busy endeavouring to make his large grant productive and habitable for himself and his family, and founding a home on it. At the time my enquiries were made, he had been dead just on 60 years, and as my informants were men between 60 and 70 years of age, they could have only been children at the time of his death, and there was no one who had any personal recollection of him, and all that they could tell me about him was what they had learned from others older than themselves many years before. This much was gathered: that he had been an Officer in the Imperial Army, a Lieutenant of Sappers, and stationed with his Company in the Island of Heligoland after that Island had been ceded to the British in 1814. Possibly the reason of him being stationed there was that the Imperial Government was then fortifying the Island of Heligoland, which you will all remember was the Island in the North Sea that the British Government, in 1890, obligingly ceded to the German Government, and the Island which was destined to be made by the Germans a most serious menace to the British Sea Power during the Great War.
Later on, Platt by arrangement with the Home Government, came to the Coal River Settlement (otherwise Newcastle) to take charge of the coal-mining operations then carried on with the aid of convict labour. He arrived at Newcastle at the latter end of 1821 or the beginning of 1822. He was promised a grant of 2,000 acres of land, to be selected by him on the Hunter River. He certainly was not in Newcastle at the time of the visit to the settlement by Mr. Commissioner Bigge, otherwise that pains-taking, exact gentleman must have mentioned the fact, but it is presumed that it was owing to Bigge’s report or letters to the Imperial Government as a result of his visit to Newcastle, that the Imperial Government arranged with Platt to come out and take charge of the working of the coalmines, as in his report he mentions that there were “27 men employed in the working of the mine, and 20 tons of coal can be raised in one day by the number of men there employed,” but he goes on to show that apparently the mining was done in a bad way as he speaks of the bad air and the difficulty experienced in clearing the mine of water.
As showing further that Platt could not have been settled in the district, Bigge mentions that “in 1818 Governor Macquarie gave permission to place a certain number of convicts who had conducted themselves well in some fertile plains that adjoin Hunter’s River, and that are now called Paterson’s Plains snd Wallis’s Plains, to cultivate land on their account, and to hold during the pleasure of the Government, and further, three free persons, consisting of the storekeeper, the assistant surgeon, and the pilot’s son, and who, with the Commandant and the Military, formed the whole free population in the settlement of Hunter’s River, had received grants of land in these Plains.”
Platt arrived in Newcastle some time at the end of 1821 or the beginning of 1822. In the year 1822 he selected the site of his 2,000 acre grant. Whatever his calling my have been, he had little or no knowledge of agricultural land, otherwise he never would have picked upon the land which he did when fertile land fit for tillage higher up the River could have been had by him. Let us try to visualise the land selected as it must have presented itself to his eyes in 1822. This we are enabled to do from the fact that portions thereof had remained untouched for years, and quite adjacent to the portion that he first cleared and cultivated, and where he made his first home on the southern bank of the South Channel of the Hunter River. Immediately behind the Mangroves fringing the River there was a small belt of dense, tropical brush. consisting of wild native figs, black apple trees, myrtle, cedar, and general brush growth. This is extended along a gully running south-westerly back towards the Maitland Road, which, of course, did not then exist. This bit of brush land was the only good cultivatable land there – a matter of about seven or eight acres. The hilly land rising from the River was fairly thick forest land, consisting mainly of Iron bark, some grey gum, and red gum. It is possible that the thick forest land misled the inexperienced Englishman into the belief that the land that could produce such fine timber must necessarily be fertile – little knowing that that class of timber was indicative of the poorest of land. The South-eastern portion of the land was covered with dense ti tree bush, another sure indication of poor country. Other portions were swampy, but generally the area was heavily timbered with timber of a good class. “
We come now to the actual grant. This was dated 30th June, 1823, and was one of the earliest grants made in the Newcastle district, if not the earliest. It was made by Sir Thomas Brisbane, and recites that it was made in pursuance of Royal instructions of the 5th February, 1821. The grant proceeds to give and grant unto John Laurio Platt, his heirs and assigns, all those 2,000 acres of land situate lying and being in the County of Northumberland and Township of Newcastle, bounded on the east by the line bearing south, commencing from Hunter River, 88 chains on the south by a line bearing west 160 chains on the west by a line bearing north to Iron Bark to near its junction with the Hunter River (apparently the surveyors were too tired to give this distance, but approximately it is about 2½ miles), and on the north and north-east by that River.
This grant contained a peculiar reservation, and the only one so far as I know in this district which contains such a reservation, namely a reservation of all timber required for Naval purposes. A further reservation was “such parts of the land as shall be required for a highway or highways.” A stipulation for payment of a quit rent of £2 per annum after the first five years; a condition for the employment of convicts. (So that you may follow the situation of this grant, the commencing point was a little slightly to the north-east to where the Roman Catholic Boys’ Orphanage is situated, and ran in a straight line south to the centre of Platt Street, Waratah, a distance of about 1¼ miles; thence it ran west 2 miles, and thence northerly to the junction of Iron Bark Creek (a matter of about 2¾ miles, and from there between two to three miles along the River back to the commencing point). Commenting on the grant, it seems strange that the land was described as lying and being in the township of Newcastle. In point of fact, it was about four miles from Newcastle, with thick, trackless bush intervening, and dealing with the period, let us hear what Bigge has to say about the Township of Newcastle in 1821. He says that “the township contained altogether 13 houses that belonged to the Government, and 71 that belonged to prisoners.”
As regards the quit rent, it was usual to reserve quit rents in grants of the period. £2 per year, however, seems very little for 2,000 acres, and even that was not to be paid for the first five years. The condition in the grant for the employment of convicts was a common one in those days in grants of large areas. Unfortunately, the records In my possession do not enable me to say the number of convicts stipulated, but it would certainly not be less than five, and possibly would be as high as 20. A great deal of misapprehension exists as to the employment of convicts by early settlers. It is a common error to suppose that they received nothing more than their keep and clothing for their work. As a matter of fact, at the date of this grant, in 1823, the regulations provided that their masters were bound to find them in food which was regulated according to a scale, and pay them in money the sum of £10 per year, reducible to £7 per year if their employers found them in clothes. The pay seems small, but if money values then and now are compared, it will be found that the £10 per year would be equivalent to about £ 30 per year. In other words, they received a little better than the 11/-per week and keep.
The first portion of his grant which Platt had cleared for cultivation purposes consisted of an area of about 40 acres right in the north-eastern corner of his grant, starting from where the Roman Catholic Boys’ Orphanage is now situated, and running a distance south for nearly half a mile, and thence west about a mile. He erected his first homestead and outbuildings just to the south of the Orphanage site. Judging from the nature of the timber-growing there, the clearing must have been a slow and tedious process with the means of clearing then existing, because timber of the nature growing on the hilly portions of the land was very difficult and hard to clear. In point of fact, the clearing had originally gone down as far as where the present Maitland Road goes, but this was not all cultivated, as about a matter of 300 to 400 yards from Maitland Road was not cultivated, and later was allowed to sucker and the forest to start again. Incidentally I might mention this enables me to estimate the extent of growth of the Australian hardwood timber in seventy years because to my knowledge the trees had grown up around the butts of saplings that had been cut down, and they showed in the early 90’s that the growth of iron bark, and spotted gum, and grey gum was no more than about 1’ to 15″ in diameter in that period. That portion which was cultivated (and the furrows still remain there to show the cultivation) was sown with crops of maize and wheat. I might mention that the information generally as to the Platt Settlement was given to me by a Mr. Buxton, who either was born on the Estate, or lived there as a child. The portion that was cultivated and kept clear was known as the Mill Paddock. Mr. Buxton informed me that the reason of this was that a rough kind of a wind-mill was erected by Platt just about where the Orphanage site is now, where the maize and wheat crops were ground for food purposes.
In addition to the cultivation of maize and wheat, Platt also mined tor coal, the coal being loaded into barges by means of barrows, and at high tide poled down to Newcastle. This was done by two tunnels driven just under the Orphanage site, and the seam worked, I believe, was what is known as a floating seam of about no more than 4ft. The two tunnels, in my young days, existed, and evidence still exists of their location. I myself with others, have gone into these tunnels as a boy, but could not penetrate any distance owing to the falls which had occurred.
Apparently, too, there is evidence of oyster shells being removed from Black’s middens for the purpose of making lime, as a great deal of excavation in my young days existed. There is no doubt, from the records as they exist, that Platt intended to make an abiding home for himself and his descendants on his grant. His will, which he made in 1829, left his grant of 2,000 acres (which, by the way, he called “Iron Bark” due, no doubt to the prevalence of iron bark on the property) subject to certain rights, to his wife, and certain payments to be made in respect of his younger children, to his eldest son, stating that it was his wish that his estate at Iron Bark should remain in the hands of the eldest son, subject to a valuation for him to pay such proportions as his Executors should think fit and proper towards buying the other boys each 2,000 acres of land. It will be noted that he mentions his other boys. There were four boys in all, the eldest of whom was Frederick William Platt, and three other boys, but on the 20th December, 1831, two of these boys were burnt to death. The following copy of a Declaration is interesting. It was made by John Butler Hewson on the 14th June, 1861 (and, by the way, this John Butler Hewson was the step-father of Mr. James Hannell, the first Mayor of Newcastle). Hewson, in his Declaration, states that he was for many years Chief Constable at Newcastle; that he knew and was well acquainted with John Laurio Platt and frequently heard him speak of Frederick William Platt as his eldest son; that he remembers two of the youngest sons of John Laurio Platt (named, as he believed, Robert Henry and John Laurie) being burnt to death in the month of December, 1831, and that he found the bodies near Iron Bark aforesaid, and that on that occasion the said John Laurio Platt particularly referred to the said Frederick William Platt as his eldest son.
Now as regards this, when I was a child I, with other boys, wandered frequently over the site of the Settlement, and on a grassy knoll in a gully leading up from the River there were four or five unmistakable mounds which we were told were graves. We had been told that they were the graves of convicts who had died on the property, but it is likely, as was common in those days, that these two boys mentioned were buried there. There never has been any question to my mind as to what these mounds were. In the last year of last century,1899, I had a picture painted for me of the Mill Paddock, and I have that here with me now, and the location of these mounds is marked. As to how these boys were burnt to death there remains no record that I have ever been able to trace, but it is quite possible, that the original homestead was burnt down, because my informant on this point told me that he never remembers the original homestead, and that the only homestead he remembered was one that was situated just at the point where in later years, the road to the Ash Island punt joined the Maitland Road. Of course it was only in very later years that the punt to Ash Island was established. This old house was standing in the late 70’s, and I remember seeing it myself when a child. It was a rather roomy old place, built of sawn hardwood slabs, and roofed partly with shingles and stringy bark. Just to the left of it there had been further clearing and cultivation of an area I should say of about seven to eight acres.
John Laurio Platt died on the 17th July, 1836, leaving as his Executors Major E. C. Close, whom you will remember as being of Morpeth, and his wife, Rosanna. Platt, and a Mr. F. T. V. Bloomfield. Apparently from the records, Mrs. Platt had died in his lifetime, and Bloomfield declined to act, the Will being proved by Major Close. Whatever the desires and wishes of this early settler and pioneer were with regard to his eldest son retaining the ownership of the 2,000 acres, granted to the father, the son on the 22nd October 1839, parted with the land to the Australian Agricultural Company for £6,000. Doubtless Frederick William Platt knew of much better land for agricultural purposes than that which his father had selected, but as to what became of him there is no record that I know of. The only other son of John Laurio Platt was William Hampden Platt, who married one of the Brooks, of Wallsend, and it is after him that the township of Plattsburg was named, being a subdivision made by himself and wife, of his wife’s portion of the Brooks’ Estate.
After the A.A. Co. got possession of the property there was no attempt made by that company to settle the land or do anything with it, and it remained in the same state as the Platts left it until 1885, when the A.A. Co. determined to cut up a portion of the ground for sale, running from the Waratah Goods Shed, along Platt Street, and up to just a little beyond where the Mater Hospital is situated. This subdivision the company called Platt’s Hill Estate, and sold in areas of acre blocks. Later on a good deal of it was re-subdivided, and is now known as Cambridge Park. Before this, in 1856 and the early part of 1857, the Northern railway had been made through the property, but owing to the means of construction then existent there was a long hold-up at what was known for years as the Big Hill – in other words, what we now know as Platt’s Hill. This occupied a considerable time in cutting, but no permanent settlement arose owing to that, as the men employed in the construction of the railway moved on with it, and as I will mention later on, a few did remain as timber getters in and about the district – so that a little more than 20 years after Platt’s death, the main Northern railway ran through his property for a distance of nearly three miles. This railway was ultimately destined to connect up the whole of the railway system from Perth to Brisbane. Where this early pioneer and settler first caused a forest to be felled and the lands to be ploughed there are more than 1,000 people living on it, and this embraces what is known as Mayfield West, Cambridge Park and Platt’s Hill. In addition, three large industrial undertakings are situated on the land, where hundreds of men are now employed – Vickers’ Commonwealth Steel Products Co., the Abattoirs, Newbold Silica Brickworks. and two big institutions, namely the Mater Miseriacordiae Hospital, and the Deaf and Dumb institution – that is speaking of the living, but speaking of the dead, the Newcastle General Cemetery at Sandgate lies wholly within the area of the grant.
The next in chronological order of taking possession, but not in actual grant, is that of the 2.000 acres of the A.A. Co., but I shall not dilate upon this, more than to say that the only portion that came in the Waratah district of that grant was a matter of between 30 to 40 acres – a triangular piece right at the northward corner of the A.A. Co.’s grant.
The A.A. Co. was formed in 1824, and received a Charter entitling the company to select 1,000,000 acres of land for the purposes of agricultural, sheep and cattle farming, and in addition 2,000 acres adjoining the township of Newcastle, and the monopoly of coalmining.
Apparently the company had some dispute with Governor Darling, who seems to have been rather a nasty type of person, and either could not read his instructions from Home, or read them in his own way, with the result that it was not until the year 1830 that the company was enabled to take possession of its grant, so that the company’s grant only comes incidentally into consideration, and in point of fact the company, so far as that portion of the land lying within the Waratah boundaries, never thought it worthwhile considering from the stand-point of any settlement until a little over 20 years ago. Up till about that time most of my listeners will remember the corner I am speaking of, which ran along the Maitland Road, just across the Waratah side of the present coal line, and upon which a slaughter house and boiling down premises were situated, a rather unsightly sight, but with the founding of the Steel Works, and the system of Municipal rating on unimproved land, the A.A. Co. thought it advantageous to subdivide and get rid of the land, which they did.
I now come to the grantee whom I consider as being the main factor in bringing about any substantial settlement within the area, namely Thomas Grove. His grant consisted of 60 acres, the bounds of which were as follows:-
Bounded on the south by High Street, on the west by Bridge Street, on the north by the centre of Platt Street (here it should I be mentioned that this grant adjoined part of the southern boundary of Platt’s grant), and on the east by Turton Road.
Now, at the time of the grant none of these roads existed. What was High Street on the south was known as the township reserve at Newcastle; the same with regard to the east and west boundaries, and the northern boundary was, as I before said, the south boundary of Platt’s grant.
Now the records show that this 60 acres was taken possession of by one George Dent on the 27th January, 1832. As to who George Dent was I could never ascertain, but undoubtedly he must rank (as he was in possession of this land in 1832) as a very early settler. Records further show that George Dent parted with the land to a Simon Kemp somewhere between 1832 and 1843. Simon Kemp was a Newcastle business man, and owner of small ketches trading between Sydney and Newcastle, and a man who acquired a fair amount of property in Newcastle, one of the properties being the site of the present George Hotel, and Parnell’s Chambers, and other properties in Hunter Street. He certainly was never a resident of the locality, and possibly never intended to be, but he equally certainly was a great acquirer of lands. His son became Colonial Architect, and his grandson Mr. Walter Parnell, a member of the Bar of New South Wales. In October, 1843, this 60 acre block was sold by Kemp to Thomas Grove for the sum of £220, From the price paid, it would appear that the land had been partly cleared, probably by Dent, and that there was some kind of a house in existence on it. With regard to Thomas Grove, the information gathered concerning him was that he had come out to this country as quite a young man, and for some years worked on the Williams River, employed by the McPhersons, who were shipbuilders at Eagleton, on the Williams River, just above Raymond Terrace. These McPhersons built several ketches and small craft at their ship-building yards, the remains of which existed 40 years ago, but have apparently disappeared since then.
With the moneys saved by Grove, he came to Waratah in 1843 and occupied the land – partly farming and timber-getting with bullocks which he ran not only on his own 60 acres, but on the adjoining Government lands. The property was known for years by the people of Newcastle as “Bloodwood Paddock,” which indicates the class of timber growing on the land. The top portion had the appearance of fertility, as in the late 70’s there existed what had apparently been a very fine orange orchard, which extended for an area of about five acres on the south-western portion of the property.
No settlement seems to have taken place in this area until about 1857, when a number of the men who were engaged in timber-getting for the Northern Railway, and later on for the for the Wallsend Co.’s Railway, settled on the land somewhere in the region of Smart and Bridge Streets and depastured their bullocks and erected what were just humpies for themselves and their families. There would not be any more than about five or six of them, some of the descendants of whom are still living in Waratah. The families as I know them were Drinkwaters, Brayes, Paynes, Ellis’ and Jacksons – my own people arriving there in August 1857. These first settlers continued to reside there after the railway line had passed on, and in 1859 the Newcastle-Wallsend Coal Mining Co. commenced to construct their railway line out to the Wallsend Coal Mine to connect with the Great Northern line. This gave further employment to the handful of people who were settled there.
In 1860 Mr. Thomas Grove, believing there was coal in the Waratah hills, caused a tunnel to be driven into the side of the hill at a spot just a little below Braye Park, on the Waratah side. About that time a good deal of prospecting for coal was going on and the tunnel resulted, after driving only a few feet, in the discovery of a very fine seam of coal seven-to eight feet thick, being the Borehole Seam, which ended in the Waratah Hills. This tunnel was continued for some little distance, but owing to the dip in the seam, and the trouble in getting the water away, it was determined to drive a tunnel on the southern or Lambton side of the same hill, and in point of fact ultimately two tunnels were driven in there and worked for several years. In 1863 Mr. Grove was instrumental in the foundation and incorporation by Act of Parliament of the Waratah Coal Co. with a capital of 60,000 into 10,000 shares of £ 6 each, the first Directors being Thomas Sutcliffe Mort, of Mort’s Dock fame, Thomas Ware Smart, Charles Smith, Benjamin Darley, Thomas Grove, Atkinson Alfred Patrick Tighe and William Steel. The mine was then completely developed, a railway line was built from Waratah to Port Waratah, where the coal was shipped, and later on this line was extended further west and another tunnel opened, and the line became part of the boundary of the Municipal District of Waratah.
Mr. Grove had one child only, a daughter, who married in 1859 Mr. A. A. P. Tighe – by the way, an uncle of our respected townsman, Mr. William Sparke, a resident of Waratah himself just upon 50 years, on part of Grove’s grant. Mr. Tighe was one of the first directors of the Waratah Coal Co. He represented the County of Northumberland in Parliament for many years, and held Ministerial office.
In 1863 [actually 1862] Thomas’ Grove subdivided his 60 acre block into haIf-acre allotments, and in the first subdivision every lot was sold, being bought by people who were engaged in mining. Business premises were erected, and the first definite settlement to any extent in Waratah settled within the area of the 60 acre grant, the people building their homes and living there.
Incidentally Mr. Thomas Grove was the cause of a great deal of tribulation to the boys of my generation who attended the Waratah School. He called his subdivision “Hanbury,” after his birthplace in England, but the railway station from the early first days of the railway was named “Waratah.” The boys who attended the Waratah School were ordered to write “Hanbury Public School” in their exercise books, but not one of them, to my knowledge, ever did, notwithstanding threats of punishment, and actual punishment. “Waratah School” it was with us, and “Waratah School” it remained.
In connection with the Waratah Coal Co. grants were made to the Company of 102 acres of land at Port Waratah, fronting the River, and this land was used in the first place by the Company for shipping their coal, but early in 1867 the Waratah Coal Co., by arrangements with the directors of the Wallaroo and Moonta Copper Mining Co., had most of the area cleared of the timber, and that company established large smelting works and used the coal from the Waratah Coal Co. for smelting purposes.
At this point I would like to mention a very interesting fact concerning Port Waratah, and for which I am indebted to my good friend Mr. Albert Hough. I will read an extract taken from a book in his possession :-
The ‘Lady Nelson’ was the first vessel to visit Port Waratah. About 4. p.m. on Sunday, 28th June, 1801, she left her anchorage in Freshwater Bay, as Newcastle harbour was designated by Governor King in the general orders, and proceeded up the south channel of the river, and at 6 p.m. was moored in three fathoms in Port Waratah. At 7 a.m. next she was dropped into 9ft., as the second mate, who had been ahead sounding, reported he had only 6ft. or 7ft. To satisfy themselves on this head, Grant and Paterson in the launch, at the top of high tide, found no more than 2ft. to 4ft., and at their return sounded the other entrance to the channel, called Mangrove Creek, but now called Throsby Creek; but found no more water, and in many places less. Judging the vessel might touch at low water where she lay, off an island, which Paterson called Needle Island, from its length and narrowness, but now called Spit Island, she was brought back to Port Waratah, where she lay in 16ft. of water sheltered from every wind that could blow. All idea of proceeding up this channel was abandoned, and moving with the kedge they determined to explore the river in boats. This stoppage would not have occurred had they any knowledge of the main or north channel. Hereafter it will be seen that despite the shoally state of Port Waratah there was for many years a most persistent agitation to make it the chief shipping port.
From 1867 to about 1892 that company continuously smelted copper, which was brought from South Australia by barques of 700-800 tons register to Port Waratah. In addition, about the same time the English and Scottish Australian Copper. Co, (another South Australian company) established copper smelting works right adjacent to the Waratah Coal Co.’s line, on the site of which Goninan’s engineering works are now erected at Broadmeadow. These copper works brought about settlement around about Georgetown on what is known as Moate’s Grant, which was granted to one Joseph Moate in 1853, but as he was never a resident of Waratah, and only bought the land from the Government for speculative purposes, I just mention the fact that Georgetown was the part of the subdivision made by his two sons, and on this land most of the smelters or the English, Scottish and Australian copper works built their homes and resided. The Copper Smelting Works at Port Waratah also brought about settlement on what we knew as Calcina Flat. The smelters were in the main all Welsh people at both works, having all come from copper smelting works at Cardiff and Swansea, in Wales. In 1870 the Municipal district of Waratah was proclaimed, and by then a Public School had been built, which still stands, although considerably enlarged. Two smelting works had been established, two quarries were opened for the purpose or quarrying stone, one known as Stevens’ Quarry and one as Whiteman’s Quarry, in the Waratah Hills so that by 1870 Mr. Thomas Groves had the satisfaction and the profitable pleasure of seeing as a result of his energy and enterprise, a thriving township of several hundred people with a well-established coal mine and works which gave constant employment to the inhabitants.
The original old Grove home was standing when I was a child at the top of the Orange Grove which I referred to, at the corner of High and Bridge Streets, Waratah. It was a low, old place, consisting of slab and weatherboard and shingle roof. Mr. Grove, however, built himself a large and more elaborate residence which is still standing just below St. Phillips’ Church of England, Waratah, adjacent to Bridge Street, but somewhere in the early 70’s Grove left Waratah and returned to his native heath in England, where he died. One of his descendants living is Mr. Harry Tighe, an English novelist of some repute, who was a grandson, and another grandson was Mr. William Tighe, a prominent member of the New South Wales Bar, now deceased.
Incidentally it might be mentioned that Mr. Grove had the very doubtful honor of introducing the Lantana into Waratah, as for years a very thick hedge of it surrounded the Orange Grove along Bridge’ Street.
The next settler of note, as bringing about settlement in the area, was one Charles Simpson. Charles Simpson was Collector of Customs at Newcastle in the early 40’s, and to him the honor must be ascribed of giving the name of Waratah to the district. In 1848 he took possession of 35½ acres of land which he had bought from the Government, on the banks of the river adjoining to the eastward what is known as Kerr Street, but it was then called an Occupation Road of half a chain wide. The land near the river was covered with dense tropical brush, and some portion of the old trees still remain. Mr. Simpson cleared a portion of this brush, and from what I know of the country around there, it must have been a most mosquito-infested place at the time, and there he built what was considered in the early days of Newcastle quite a mansion, and he was rowed up and down to his duties in Newcastle by Government men. On the rise at the back of this house it is said was the place where the Waratah grew, and to signalise this, he called his home “Waratah House.” The people of Newcastle, just as promptly, designated at “Simpson’s Folly,” and from these circumstances the name “Waratah House” still survives, and “The Folly” was the name by which all that part of North Waratah was known, the word “Simpson” having been dropped.
In addition to this grant of 35 acres, Mr. Simpson also obtained other grants of 34½ acres and 20 acres all in the same neighbourhood. He lived on his property from 1848 to 1854. In 1854 he, in conjunction with Mr. Charles Bolton, known as Major Bolton, another grantee, cut up their grants on the southern side of what is now known as Bull Street, and sold it in 5 acre blocks. The settlers who acquired the land cultivated it as vineyards and orchards. Among the notable families that settled there was Mr. Peter Crebert (after whom Crebert Street is named), who was one of the purchasers in 1854, and planted vineyards on his block, and made wine there for many years afterwards. Another was Phillip Kuhn, and other purchasers were Crowther, Walters or Waters, Robertson, Russell, Bull, Gray and Baker, and these settlers can be taken as the first of the early settlers in the area in 1854. Most of them were living on their properties in my childhood days at the end of the 70’s.
The railway line was opened from Newcastle to Maitland in 1859, and the station at Waratah, owing to most of the inhabitants then living on the North Waratah side, was named Waratah from that fact, as, owing to Simpson, the neighbourhood had been called “Waratah,” and so the name has remained to this day.
In 1854 Simpson sold his land to Messrs. Morse & Tourle, of New England, squatters. Mr. Tourle lived there for many years, and also planted vineyards and carried on wine-making, which was still going on in the late 70’s.
Another very early settler was Mr. William Thomas Brain. He, at the time when he was an old man, told me his history. He was a native of the farming portion of Warwickshire, and emigrated as a young man of 18 to New South Wales, in the year 1840.
He was engaged in Sydney by Major Scott, of Scott’s Point, Ash Island, to work for him as a farm labourer on Ash Island, at 2/6 per week, and keep and clothing. He worked on Ash Island until the year 1852, when he bought an area of 67 acres, being two grants to a man named John Nott, to whom the land was granted in 1851. Nott never resided on his grants. These lands were immediately to the east of the Platt’s grant, and were cleared by Brain who brought his produce to Newcastle by boat, where it was sold. In addition, Brain bought an area of 32 acres of ground running from Bull Street down to Maitland Road, and the east boundary of which was Kerr Street. This he used as a paddock.
Early in 1864 he sold his farm properties to people who continued to farm them afterwards, and his own grant he sold in 1862, consisting of 32 acres, to Messrs. Roe & Barton. This land was subsequently subdivided by Mr. James Roe, and is now known as the “Newbottle Subdivision” of Waratah or Mayfield. This name, “Newbottle,” puzzled me for many years, and it was only in recent years that the explanation of its origin was known to me. Mr. James Roe had three subdivisions on the Mayfield side of Waratah, namely Monkwearmouth, Houghton-Le Spring, and “New-Bottle.”
Houghton-le-Spring and Monkwearmouth are old County Durham names of which County in England Mr. Roe was a native – in other words, a Geordy. New-bottle should really be “New Battle.” New-Battle Abbey, you will remember was where one of the decisive engagements was fought in the Cromwellian Civil War, but in recent years it is a very extensive mining district, and it was to that district in Durham that Mr. Roe belonged, but apparently the Subdivision at Mayfield was spelt as it was pronounced by the Geordies, namely “New-Bottle,” instead of “New-Battle.”
Of all the numerous grantees of land within the area, and there were very many that I have not had time to mention, there were only four of the original grantees who resided on the lands granted to them as settlers. These were John Laurio Platt, Thomas Grove, Charles Simpson and William Thomas Brain. All the other grantees apparently only bought for the purpose of holding the land, and made no use of it, and these, together with the families that settled at the Folly or North Waratah, whose names I have mentioned, and those on the Waratah side up to 1857, constituted the only permanent residents in the area.
I shall just mention shortly one other grant, but as it comes into what we call “modern history,” I do not intend to elaborate on it. This was a grant made on the 1st February, 1854, to James Price, of Buttai, of 29 acres one rood and 16 perches, bought by him in June 1853. Mr. James Price, of Buttai, never resided on this grant. He had a boiling-down establishment at Buttai, where he killed cattle and boiled down the tallow and collected the hides of the same. After passing through the hands of two other persons, neither of whom lived on the property, this land ultimately was conveyed on the 2nd April 1881, to John Scholey, butcher of Newcastle. For years before the date of that conveyance, the paddock had been rented by Scholey as a slaughter-house paddock, upon which a slaughter-house was erected, and a residence for the slaughterman. The paddock was fenced and fairly heavily timbered. It started at the corner of Kerr Street and ran from there to Crebert Street, along Crebert Street eastward to within about five chains of Church Street, and then southward to the Maitland Road, and back to Kerr Street. Along the Maitland Road there was thick ti-tree bush, particularly at the corner where Amos’ Hotel now stands. I myself, as a boy, have stood on the second rail of the fence and gathered what we used to call “Roman Candles,” off the vine growing on the tops of the ti-trees. The rest of the land was open forest land.
In 1881 Mr. Scholey had this land cleared, stumped and subdivided, and called the Subdivision Mayfield, I believe after one of his daughters. This land was readily sold at good prices, and quickly built upon, mainly fine residences, especially those fronting Bull Street, and then residents being chiefly successful business people of Newcastle. The settlement at the north side of Waratah had remained stationary, but the Mayfield Subdivision was quickly settled, and this brought into settlement also the New-Bottle Sub-division adjoining.
Now, lastly, as to another interesting grantee within the area, Mr. Henry Dangar. This gentleman was the founder of the Dangar family in New South Wales. A native of St. Neots, Cornwall, he arrived in New South Wales about the middle of 1821. He was employed as an assistant to Mr. Oxley, the Surveyor General of New South Wales, and continued in the employ of the Government until about 1829, when, owing to a dispute with that nasty person, Governor Darling, in connection with land matters in Scone, he retired from the Government Service, and was employed as a Surveyor for the A.A. Co. It should be mentioned, however, that whilst in Government employment in 1826, he was one or the Government Surveyors who surveyed out the enormous grant of 1,000,000 acres to the A.A. Co. In all there were granted to him within the area of Waratah 241 acres, and these grants stretched from Platt’s Channel right down to the Maitland Road, and were continued on to the three-cornered piece of land of the A.A. Co., which I have referred to, and continued then right to Georgetown Road, which went through one of his grants.
Mr. Dangar was never a resident, and apparently, with Cornish acquisitiveness, obtained the land purely for holding purposes. It is possible that he had some idea of turning them into farming lands, as in every instance he was shrewd enough to take his land up where fresh water creeks ran through them.
There are quite a number of other grants that I could refer to, but time does not permit, nor would the history of them be of any great interest.
