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Cessnock

New South Wales, Australia

Cessnock, NSW
Cessnock, New South Wales



Cessnock is located in New South Wales
Red pog
Cessnock
Population: 18,316 [1] Note1
Postcode: 2325
Coordinates: 32°50′3″S 151°21′19.8″E / -32.83417, 151.3555Coordinates: 32°50′3″S 151°21′19.8″E / -32.83417, 151.3555
Elevation: 80 m (262 ft)
Time zone:

 • Summer (DST)

AEST (UTC+10)

AEDT (UTC+11)

Location:
LGA: City of Cessnock
Region: Hunter
County: Northumberland
Parish: Cessnock
State District:
  • Cessnock
  • Upper Hunter
Federal Division: Hunter
Mean Max Temp Mean Min Temp Annual Rainfall
24.6 °C
76 °F
11.1 °C
52 °F
747.5 mm
29.4 in


Cessnock is a city in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about 52 km (32 mi) by road west of Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the City of Cessnockl LGA and was named after an 1826 grant of land called Cessnock Estate, which was owned by John Campbell.[2][3] The local area once known as "The Coalfields" is now the gateway city to the vineyards of the Hunter Valley, which includes Pokolbin, Mount View, Broke, Rothbury, and Branxton.

Geography[]

The town is located in the rich alluvial and volcanic soils of the Hunter Valley. Rich coal seams underlie much of the area. The Brokenback Range (part of the Great Dividing Range) rises to the west of the city. The Hunter River flows down the Hunter Valley approximately 20 km (12 mi) to the north. Cessnock lies within the Hunter Valley Important Bird Area.[4]

History[]

The transition to wine service centre from a once prosperous mining town has been a long and at times difficult process.

Cessnock lies between Australia’s earliest European settlements - Sydney, the Hawkesbury River and Newcastle. Lying on the land route between these important settlements it provided early European contact with indigenous people who have inhabited the Cessnock area for more than 3,000 years. The Darkinjung people were the major inhabitants at the time of European contact, which subsequently proved to be disastrous for the Darkinjung tribe. Many were killed or died as a result of European diseases. Others were forced onto neighbouring tribal territory and killed. The city of Cessnock abounds in indigenous place names and names with indigenous association which is indicative of this settlement and include Congewai, Kurri Kurri, Laguna, Nulkaba and Wollombi.

Pastoralists commenced settling the land in the 1820s. Cessnock was named by Scottish settler John Campbell, after his grandfather's baronial Cessnock Castle in Ayrshire to reflect the aristocratic heritage and ambitions for this estate.[2][3] The township of Cessnock developed from 1850, as a service centre at the junction of the Great North Road from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, with branches to Maitland and Singleton.

The establishment of the South Maitland coalfields generated extensive land settlement between 1903 and 1923. The current pattern of urban development, transport routes and industrial landscape was laid at this time. The surveying of the Greta coal seam by Professor Edgeworth David around 1888 became the impetus for considerable social and economic change in the area with the development of the coal mining industry.

Economy[]

The decline of mining on the South Maitland Coalfields has been paralleled by growth in the wine industry and better access to other employment centres.

The Hunter Valley wine-growing area near Cessnock is Australia's oldest wine region and one of the most famous, with around 1,800 hectares (4,448 acres) under vine. The vineyards of Pokolbin, Mount View and Allandale, with their rich volcanic soils tended by entrepreneurial vignerons, are also the focus of a thriving and growing tourism industry. The extension and eventual completion of the F3 Freeway, created a property and tourism boom during the 1990s.

Cessnock has begun to develop other tourist ventures beyond the wine industry such as championship golf courses, hot air ballooning,[5] sky-diving, and guest house accommodation.

The city council has actively pursued a policy of urban renewal in the city centre since 2001. The local council was one of the first to introduce a recycling program for waste disposal in the state.

Most employment comes from the local port city of Newcastle, the nearby major centres of Maitland and Singleton and in service industries in the local council area, which comprises many small towns, such as Kurri Kurri, Weston, Neath, Abernethy, Kearsley and Pokolbin.

Education[]

Primary schools
  • Cessnock Public School
  • Nulkaba Public School
  • Cessnock East Public School
  • Bellbird Public School
  • Cessnock West Public School
  • Kearsley Public School
  • St Patricks Primary

High schools
  • Cessnock High School
  • Mount View High School
  • St Phillips Christian College

Cessnock also has a TAFE institution for further education.

StJohnsChurch

St John's Church, Dudley Street

Media[]

Cessnock is serviced by a number of regional newspapers, radio stations and television stations.

Print[]

The Cessnock Advertiser,[6] The Maitland Mercury and The Newcastle Herald are the foremost newspapers in the city. The Cessnock Advertiser is an adjunct to the "Mercury" and is published every Wednesday.[7] With a circulation of approximately 17,000, The Advertiser is delivered to most residents within the City of Cessnock.

Radio[]

Radio stations include:

AM stations[]

  • 2HD (commercial)
  • 1233 ABC Newcastle (ABC Local Radio)
  • 2HRN (off band commercial)
  • 2KY Racing Radio (as part of state-wide network)

FM stations[]

  • KOFM (commercial)
  • NXFM (commercial)
  • New FM (commercial)
  • 2NUR (community)
  • 2CHR (Central Hunter Radio) 96.5 FM – [8] (community)
  • Rhema FM Newcastle (Christian)

Government broadcasters[]

  • Australian Broadcasting Corporation
    • 1233 ABC Newcastle
    • ABC Radio National
    • ABC News Radio
    • Triple J (youth station)
    • ABC Classic FM (classical music)
  • SBS Radio (foreign language service)

Television[]

Cessnock is part of the Newcastle-Hunter Region television market, which is served by 5 television networks, three commercial and two national services (which include new sub-channels that started in 2009 for the commercial networks and in recent years from the national services). These new channels are available on digital TV only. These networks are listed as follows:

  • NBN Television, GEM (digital only) and GO! (digital only) : (Nine Network affiliate, incumbent station, (NBN TV) established 1962).
  • Southern Cross Ten, One (digital only) and Eleven (digital only) : (Network Ten affiliate, Southern Cross Ten (formerly known as TEN Northern N.S.W. and NRTV) was established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991).
  • Prime7 (formerly known as Prime Television), 7Two (digital only) and 7mate (digital only) : (Seven Network / Prime affiliate was established as a result of aggregation on 31 December 1991 but swallowed).
  • ABC Television including ABC1, ABC2/ABC 4 Kids (digital only), ABC3 (digital only) and ABC News 24 is owned by the government. The ABC TV service was established in the 1960s.
  • SBS Television including SBS ONE and SBS Two (digital only) is owned by the government. This service was introduced in the 1980s.

NBN Television produces an evening news bulletin combining local, state, national and international news screening nightly at 6.00PM, while subscription television service Foxtel is also available via satellite.

Sport[]

Cessnock rodeo

Rodeo at Cessnock showground

The city has many sporting facilities. The city competes in several regional sporting competitions, particularly the Newcastle-based leagues of various sports. Some very successful sporting players can trace their roots to the local district, including Australian Rugby League representative players and brothers Andrew and Matthew Johns. World-renowned golfer and TV commentator Jack Newton is also from Cessnock. His annual Sub-Juniors Golf Tournament has unearthed some talented young golfers and is held on the local championship courses of Pokolbin.

Transport[]

For a century Cessnock was served by a very extensive railway network, originally constructed for the coal industry, but which, at one time, had considerable passenger services, including a direct train to Sydney.

The Sydney-Newcastle Freeway's Cessnock exit at Freemans Waterhole provides one of the main road connections from Sydney to Cessnock via "The Gap", a pass through the Wattagan mountain range just north of Mt Heaton. A new freeway linking the New England Highway at Branxton and the Sydney-Newcastle Freeway at West Wallsend is planned to be built in the near future, which will bypass Cessnock.

The local airport is placed just to the north of the city, at the entrance to the Vineyard District. It has a small public passenger terminal and also serves as the base for aviation training organisations such as Avondale College's school of Aviation and Hunter Valley Aviation. The airport is not served by RPT flights. Access by air to the region is by Newcastle Airport at Williamtown, 53 km (33 mi) away.

The local bus service is run by Rover Motors which provide services to Maitland, Newcastle and Sydney as well as City Hoppars and School Bus Services.

Notable people from Cessnock[]

  • Andrew and Matthew Johns—rugby league players
  • Joel Edwards, rugby league player
  • Douglas N. Daft—businessman; CEO of Coca-Cola (2000–04), Corporate Director of Wal-Mart
  • Kenneth Neate, opera singer
  • Gavin King, journalist; newspaper columnist
  • Simon Whitlock, Professional Darts Player
  • Chad Reed, AMA Supercross rider
  • Bill Peden rugby league player

National Estate[]

CessnockCourtHouse0001

Cessnock Court House, Maitland Road (designed by George McRae, Government Architect)

Greater Cessnock contains a number of buildings and sites that are on the Register of the National Estate.[9]

  • Court House, Branxton
  • Police Station and Residence, Branxton
  • Former Court House, Greta
  • Kurri Kurri Hotel, Lang and Hampden Streets, Kurri Kurri
  • Richmond Main Colliery, Mulbring Rd, Pelaw Main
  • Laguna House, Laguna
  • Post Office, Wollombi
  • Endeavour Museum (former Court House), Wollombi
  • Public School, Wollombi
  • St Michael's Catholic Church, Wollombi
  • St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Wollombi
  • Stanford Main No.2 Colliery Pit Head Building, Brick Cottages
  • Aboriginal Rock Carvings Site, popularly known as Baiame Cave, Milbrodale Area

See also[]

  • Cessnock Correctional Centre
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Notes[]

  1. ^  This is based on the population for the Cessnock-Bellbird urban centre, a statistical area used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which is slightly different to the actual town of Cessnock.

References[]



This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Cessnock, New South Wales. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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