Hamilton, New South Wales

Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb
name = Hamilton
city = Newcastle
state = nsw

---

caption = The Kent Hotel, est. 1924, is the iconic landmark of Beaumont Street.
lga = City of Newcastle
postcode = 2303
pop = 3711 (2006 census)
area = 1.4
est = 11 December 1871
parish = Newcastle
stategov = Newcastle
fedgov = Newcastle
dist1 = 4
dir1 = W
location1= Newcastle
near-nw = Hamilton North
near-n = Islington
near-ne = Islington
near-w = Broadmeadow
near-e = Wickham
near-sw = Broadmeadow
near-s = Hamilton South
near-se = Hamilton East

Hamilton is a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located convert|4|km|mi|1|lk=on from Newcastle's central business district. The main commercial centre is located around Beaumont Street and boasts a vibrant multicultural atmosphere providing an array of restaurants, retail, fashion and commercial outlets along with day to day services such as pharmacies, banks, florists, hairdressers, fruit shops and delicatessens [http://www.ncc.nsw.gov.au/discover_newcastle/discover_our_suburbs/hamilton Newcastle City Council, Discover our Suburbs] ] .

History

Hamilton became a municipality on 11 December 1871 and was named in honour of Edward Terrick Hamilton, who was then Governor of the board of directors of the Australian Agricultural Company (AA Co), from August 1857 to September 1898. The AA Co. were instrumental in the growth of the area, operating the mines and owning most of the land.

The discovery of coal near St Peter's Church in the area known as Cameron's Hill, was the beginnings for the township of Hamilton (originally known as Pittown, Borehole or Happy Flat). A borehole was sunk and a shaft was completed in 1849 and was known as the D Pit, or borehole. Pittown grew up somewhere in the vicinity of today’s Beaumont street to service the needs of the miners and their families.

By 1928 there were over 400 retail outlets in Hamilton, having increased from 80 in 1909.

In 1947, Lettesi (a settler group made up of nearly 150 families from the village of Lettopalena in the
Abruzzo Region of Italy), initially settled in the Islington but they soon expanded in to the nearby suburbs of Hamilton and Mayfield. This was primarily due to Islington's proximity to the BHP steel works. Before long Hamilton (especially Beaumont Street) was to become a strong community and commercial centre for Newcastle’s Italians [http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/docs/italianhistory.pdf|A History of Italian Settlement in New South Wales] ] . By the late fifties, the local Italian community began patronising the Australian owned Exchange Hotel, located on the corner of Beaumont and Denison Streets. It continues to be a regular meeting place for Italian men of Hamilton.

Transport

Rail

Hamilton's train station was constructed on the Islington Junction to Newcastle section of the Hunter line. The station is 164.632 km from the "Way & Works Branch" [The Way & Works Branch performed the civil engineering tasks for the New South Wales rail system.] and is 5.8m above sea levelcite book
others=Public Transport Commission of New South Wales. Administrative Branch (Archives Section)
title=Station Names. Date of opening, closing and/or change of name
origyear=1965
origmonth=May
edition=3rd
year=1979
month=February
pages=15] . With the opening of the station in 1872, the importance of Hamilton as a suburb grew.

The railway line is part of CityRail's Newcastle-Maitland line, the first section of the Main North line defined as the Newcastle and Central Coast line, which runs from Sydney to the New England region which was opened in 1857cite web
title = Newcastle Branch
publisher=www.nswrail.net
url = http://www.nswrail.net/lines/show.php?name=NSW:newcastle
accessdate = 2006-11-23 ] .

Bus

Hamilton is the home to Newcastle's major State Transit bus depot.

Gallery

References

External links

* [http://www.ncc.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0017/8135/Hamilton.jpgA basic map of Hamilton.]