THK TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALKS. 



THE HUNTER RIVER DISTRICT. 



A BOUT seventy-five miles north of Port Jackson the Hunter River finds its outlet 

 ^ to the sea. Ninety-three years ago Lieutenant Shortland, when hunting for some 

 runaway convicts, saw the inlet north of Nobby's, and very cautiously entered. II,- found 

 no convicts, but he found coal, which was far more important. He called the stream 

 Coal River, and Coal River it remained for some time, though before the close of the 



main 



NEWCASTLE IX 1829. 



FAC-SIMILE OF A SKETCH BY SIR THOMAS MITCHELL. 



eighteenth century the settlement had been formally christened Newcastle, while the 

 river had received the name of the Hunter, after the Governor. The only regular 

 communication at that time was by the little schooners Cumberland and Integrity, of 

 twenty-six and fifty-nine tons respectively, which plied for a year or two between the 

 settlement and the Port. In those days there were no companies and no grants. In 

 1 801 Governor King declared all coal and timber discovered at the Hunter River to lie 

 the exclusive property of the Crown, and no ship was allowed to trade without recog- 

 nizances of fifty pounds, and two sureties of twenty pounds each. The license to di<,r 

 cost five shillings, and there was also a duty of two shillings and sixpence per ton to 

 be paid on all coal shipped, and that this might be satisfactorily collected it was advised 

 that only one kind of basket should be used, " weighing one hundred-weight, to measure 

 the coal in and out of the vessel." 



Such was the beginning of the town which now ranks first among the coal-ports of 

 the Southern Hemisphere, and which in its appliances for safe and rapid shipment is 

 fully abreast of the needs of the trade. The resources of the Port and district are so 

 large and varied that there could be no doubt about their ultimate growth when once 

 enterprise had taken root, though the stringent regulations of the early days made 

 progress slow and not always proportionately sure. Prior to 1804 there had been many 

 accidents owing to " mines having been dug by individuals in the most shameful manner, 

 without having props." For this, sailors were responsible ; ships used to put in, and the 

 crews would both cut and ship coal, burrow into the hill-side as far as seemed safe, and 

 leave unprotected the excavations they had made. To prevent a recurrence of these 

 accidents an order was made that in future no sailors should work in the mines, but 



