Blackbutt Reserve today owes its existence to a strange combination of business prosperity, national adversity, and private tenacity.

The current area of the Reserve lies wholly within the boundaries of a coal mining lease of the Scottish Australian Mining Company. The eighteen hundred acre lease extended from Kotara South to Jesmond. Mining commenced in 1863, and apart from occasional downturns, the colliery prospered. Therefore, above ground there was little development apart from buildings such as pumping stations, required to support underground mining operations.

However, with the depletion of coal, and rising land taxes, the S.A.M Company looked for other income, from real estate. Between 1915 and 1928 the company developed and sold a few small subdivisions in Lambton, New Lambton, and Kotara. In June 1932, they attempted to auction a large parcel of land, in what is now the southern part of Blackbutt Reserve. The nation at this time however, was suffering the adversity of economic depression. There was little appetite for land purchases, and only five of the 52 lots on offer were sold. The failure of the auction thus left open a window of opportunity for local councils to purchase the land for a nature reserve, starting with 17 acres on Lookout Road in March 1938 and increasing to 143 acres by the end of that year.

In 1956, Newcastle Council bought another 240 acres from the S.A.M. Company, in what is now the northern part of Blackbutt Reserve. Council wanted to subdivide all this land for housing, but through the tenacious opposition of private citizens and community groups, this development was blocked. Instead, the land was added to Blackbutt Reserve. Community opposition had to swing into action again in 1966 to prevent the Department of Main Roads building an expressway through the Reserve.

Many individuals worked tirelessly for the establishment and preservation of Blackbutt Reserve. One in particular, Joe Richley, president of the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement for 20 years, is commemorated in the name of Richley Reserve.

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The article above was first published in the July 2017 edition of the Lambton & New Lambton Local.

Acknowledgement

One of my main sources in researching and writing this article was “A History of Blackbutt Nature Reserve” by John Ramsland, University of Newcastle, a manuscript written for the Blackbutt Reserve Local Committee as a contribution to the Australian Bicentennial Celebrations. A copy of this manuscript is held in Newcastle Region Library Local Studies Section, Q719.32/RAM.

Additional Photos

From the Newcastle Morning Herald, 12 January 1937.

Two views of Blackbutt Reserve, which is being acquired by the municipal councils of the district for retention as a public park. From the shelter shed there is a commanding view of Newcastle.

Development on the S.A.M. Co Mining Lease

The 1888 map below, held by the NSW Land and Property Information, shows the 1840 acres of mining lease held by the Scottish Australian Mining Company in the name of “Morehead & Young”, in the following lots:

• Lot 23 – 320 acres
• Lot 167 – 320 acres
• Lot 171 – 320 acres
• Lot 172 – 240 acres
• Lot 173 – 320 acres
• Lot 174 – 320 acres

Fifty years after mining commenced in 1863, a 1913 War Office map shows that the only area of the 1840 acre mining lease with residential development is the township of Lambton in the north west corner.

From 1915, the Scottish Australian Mining Company started developing and selling residential subdivisions, starting with 24 blocks of “Lambton Park Estate” fronting Howe St, in May 1915.

Twenty five blocks on Russell St New Lambton were offered for sale in June 1915. (All real estate posters are from the University of Newcastle Living Histories site.)

Fifty seven blocks surrounding Chilcott St Lambton were offered for sale in January 1920.

Twenty eight blocks in New Lambton Heights were offered for sale in October 1920.Ten blocks on Curzon St and Carrington Pde, New Lambton were offered for sale in December 1921.

191  blocks in Kotara were offered for sale in 1925.

Twenty six blocks on Turner St Lambton were offered for sale in 1928.

In 1932, the Scottish Australian Mining Company attempted to auction 52 blocks of land, totalling 480 acres. With the country in the grip of the Depression, the auction was a failure, with just five of the 52 blocks selling.

One of the blocks that sold was Lot 51, on Lookout Rd. This was bought by the Newcastle Branch of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Institute. It was this block that became the first officially gazetted portion of Blackbutt Reserve in March 1938.

By September 1940, the size of Blackbutt Reserve had been increased to 144 acres, as shown on this Parish Map of Newcastle. The 144 acres consisted of Lots 48 to 52, and part of lot 47 of the 1932 subdivision.

It is interesting to see how the modern boundaries of Blackbutt Reserve fall entirely within the S.A.M. Company’s mining lease, an indication of how the underground mining activities there in the 19th century left large areas of the surface undeveloped, and available for a nature reserve in the 20th century.

Blackbutt land acquisitions

The land that makes up Blackbutt Reserve today was acquired in bits and pieces over many years, with some of the land acquired later subdivided and sold for residential housing. Trying to get an authoritative story of the acquisition of land for the Reserve is quite tricky, and is not helped by some incorrect information on the web and various publications.

The sections below are not a comprehensive story of Blackbutt Reserve land acquisitions, but aims to provide some definite and documented details on some of the land dealings.

Lookout Road Park

At a New Lambton council meeting on 12 March 1924 …

The Mayor reported that, with the town clerk, he had interviewed Mr. Robinson, Mr. F. Croudace, and Mr. Greathead, of the S.A.M. Company, in regard to the company’s promise to dedicate land for a public reserve in the vicinity of the “Lookout.” Mr. Robinson stated that the promise would be honoured.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 14 March 1924.

A few weeks later the council received correspondence …

… from Scottish-Australian Mining Company, to the effect that a small area had been dedicated for reserve at look-out, and plans of same would be forwarded in due course.

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 25 April 1924.

The only land in this area recorded as being transferred from the Scottish-Australian Mining Company to New Lambton Council at this was a 1.5 acre lot on Lookout Road, transferred on 15 October 1924 (Vol-Fol 3375-212). This land was at the top of the escarpment, and was later reduced in size to the shaded green area in the image below, when Lookout Road was widened.

Although there was already a lookout near the corner of Lookout Road and Grandview Road as early as 1918, at some stage the land acquired in 1924 was also developed as a lookout. Exactly when this development took place is not clear, but a lookout at this location is marked on a 1941 map

At present, the land where the lookout is located is its own separate block of land being Lot 10, DP263568. This land was not part of the initial allocation of 143 acres of land for Blackbutt Reserve in 1938 (see next section). However Appendix 1 of the Newcastle Council Bushland Plan of Management of 2003 lists this allotment as now being part of Blackbutt Reserve.

INITIAL RESERVE – 1938

On 4 March 1938 the government resumed 17.75 acres of land on Lookout Road “for the establishment of a Public Recreation Ground at Blackbutt Lookout, Cardiff Heights. In the next two months three additional blocks of land were acquired to create the initial 143 acres of Blackbutt Reserve.

Vol-Fol	Acres	Date
4677-95	17.75	4/3/1938
4938-111	5.4375	4/4/1938
4942-236	4.525	2/4/1938
4949-74	115.5313	5/5/1939
	143.2438 (total)

On 13 September 1940 the government gazetted the 143 acres as Reserve No 69,539 “For Public Recreation. [The land had been previously gazetted on 6 September 1940, then revoked just a week later on 13 September 1940 presumably because of some error that needed correcting.] On 11 October 1940 the government appointed The Council of the City of Greater Newcastle as the trustee for the reserve.

NORTHERN Reserve – 1956

On 20 September 1956, Newcastle Council purchased approximately 240 acres of land from the Scottish Australian Mining Company (Vol-Fol 7094-176), for the northern part of Blackbutt Reserve.) The council later sold off two small areas of this land for housing, a subdivision on Floralia Crescent, and a subdivision on Mahogany Drive.

The plan for the 19 lot Floralia Crescent subdivision DP226708 was lodged on 26 July 1965, and the plan for the 16 lot Mahogany Drive subdivision DP239463 was lodged on 22 June 1970.

Some sources assert that the sale of land in these subdivisions enabled Newcastle Council to purchase the northern part of Blackbutt Reserve. This is incorrect given that these subdivisions occurred 9 and 14 years after the purchase of the 240 acres of 1956. Rather, the sale of this land was used to develop the reserve, as the Lord Mayor Alderman Purdue stated in 1963.

The profit from the sale of properties on the edge of the reserve would be used to develop the reserve.

Newcastle Morning Herald, 10 January 1963

Multiple newspaper reports from 1956 to 1959 refer to Newcastle Council having acquired “270 acres” adjacent to the existing reserve. This figure does not tally with the 240 acres of land title 7094-176, so how do we account for the extra 30 acres? I have not been able to locate land title documents for the additional land purchase, so the following is educated guesswork. The remaining area of bushland not covered by the land titles I have found, consists of an area of 60 acres bisected by Carnley Ave, with 30 acres on each side. A 1974 parliamentary report on the proposed highway through Blackbutt Reserve states that “N.C.C. purchased an additional 122ha (300 acres) to the north of the Reserve”. From this I conclude that references to “270 acres” purchased by the council is excluding land south of Carnley Avenue.

Middle Pit

The first reference in Trove to the Middle Pit is from January 1875, in relation to driving “two narrow bords four yards wide for water standage.”

It is uncertain when the Middle Pit pumping shaft ceased operation. It was still in use in June 1913, as an article refers to the damage done to Orchardtown Road in the course of carting coal to Middle Pit, presumably to fire the engine boilers. A December 1937 article reported on the attempted rescue of a dog that had purportedly fallen down the shaft. The site had obviously been unused for quite a number of years, judging by the description …

The disused shaft is known in the locality as Middle Pit, and was formerly used in connection with the workings of the Old Lambton mine. Pit top gear, including an old rusted winding wheel, is still there, but the pit itself has fallen into disuse. It is in a deep gully, and nobody would suspect its presence when more than 100 yards away. Thick lantana has grown almost to the edge; briar bushes form a barrier between the outside world and the old shaft. The only sound is the sighing of wind in the gum trees. In the interests of safety the shaft has been enclosed by a tall galvanised iron fence. The ground at the foot of portion of the fencing has worn away, and through this hole the dog probably slipped in.

State Highway 23

The Hunter Living Histories site has a scanned PDF of a booklet “Save Blackbutt – the case against State Highway 23 violating Blackbutt Reserve”.  This booklet was published by the Blackbutt Action Committee in opposing the construction of the highway.

Figure 1 below, from the Federal Government December 1974 report, “The Impact of State Highway 23 on Blackbutt Reserve, Newcastle, New South Wales” shows how much of the western part of the reserve would have been severed had the highway proposal not been blocked by staunch community opposition.

Newspaper articles

Article Date Event Date	Notes
9 Apr 1931	First mention of the name "Blackbutt Reserve" in the newspapers.
12 May 1931	Thirty to forty aldermen of the city and district inspect the Blackbutt area. The Mayor of Newcastle (Ald Parker said that they "were definitely impressed that if acquired for a reserve it would be an asset to the district."
11 Jun 1932	Advertisement for auction of 52 blocks of land, in the area of the south part of Blackbutt Reserve.
11 Aug 1932	"An area of 17¾ acres in Blackbutt Reserve imnmediately below the Look-out, has been bought by the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Memorial Institute. The purchase will serve a dual purpose, for not only will returned men willing to work for any relief they may obtain from the Institute carry out their undertaking there, but the Institute will settle a few ex-service men there on small allotments." This block became the first official part of Blackbutt Reserve in 1938.
5 Jan 1937	Convinced that Blackbutt Reserve is inappropriately named, the Mayor of Newcastle (Ald. H. Fenton), in his capacity of Chairman of the Local Govern ment Coordination Committee, is urging the adoption of a more attractive title. He suggested last night that if the reserve was dedicated as a memorial to King George V., it could be called the "King George V Memorial Park." Or there might he support, Ald. Fenton added, for a proposal that the area be known as the "Duke of Windsor Reserve."
4 Mar 1938	Official resumption of 17 acres of land (Lot 51) for Blackbutt Reserve.
14 Sep 1966	A public meeting will be held to protest against the Main Roads Board decision to route a six-lane highway through Blackbutt Reserve.

A few hundred metres from the site of Middle Pit, in the bush adjacent to Richley Reserve, lies this rusting coal bucket, a poignant symbol of the way in which the decline of coal mining gave rise to a nature reserve.