Day 21 Saturday Out and about all around Newcastle

A lovely morning and a wander up the park streets to the beach.  Being used to living at the beach, it was a comparison of what our beaches had over Stockton Beach.

Firstly access.  The beware of snakes sign was not appreciated by someone who does not like snakes!  How any council could allow this to be the access is beyond me.  I got down and managed to fall coming back.  The local surf club was practicing.

Later we drove to the ferry teminal.  The Stockton to Newcastle ferry takes 5 minutes to cross the channel.  There was a huge ship leaving when we arrived.  It was almost impossible to get it into the screen.

The badly dilapidated sign said that this was Pirate Point.  Why not upkeep the sign? Surely the place was still the same, and the events cannot be wiped from history.  Some convicts tried to steal a ship here in 1800.

Around the wharf were signs depicting the old times.  One showed were Bullock Island was, and now the area called Carrington.  The city buildings were very visible on the skyline.  Including the Cathedral.

On the ferry at $2.60 each and it is the price of transport in zones.

Information from the Caravan park indicated that there were hop on hop off buses, which travelled the city, however I could not find any mention of this in my transport searches.  Usually when we come to a new place, we get our bearings by a hop on or hop off bus, or the local bus  network.  Only way to do it.  And to plan.  Eventually John and I hopped on a 201, and had a cooks tour of Newcastle, with a great driver, who told us that we would be seeing the best and worst of the city.

We ended up at Hamilton.  It must have been an outlying town, and the rail came in 1872.  Now the rail line is being ripped up, in preparation for light rail.  A mess would be the best description.  But then we hopped on the 110 bus, the free one, to realise that it is only running as a replacement to the train, and stops at 4 stops.  Hopeless information from the staff at the van park.

Old Signals Box

Back to town we decided to walk the 300 metres to the Christ Church Cathedral.  I hope my relatives realise just what we went through to get up the 40 degree hill, and the heaps of steps in order to reach the top.

I photographed each step, as it told a story of someone who was buried in the original cemetery.
My legs had turned to jelly by the time I reached the top!  What a view!  Unfortunately there was no indication of Margaret McConnell, (Francella Bills) buried there.  Even when I asked the Cathedral Staff, who had a list, to have a look, there was nothing.  I believe that she would not have had a headstone, but just a marker.  I have the details to send information to the Cathedral.

 

Really walking in her footsteps, as the service would be in the Church, 3300 people were buried here. About 13 headstones survive.

Two streets down was Bolton Street.  And a wonderful old pub, called The Grand Hotel.

The Court House 

It was built by Alderman Buchanan, in 1899, but there is a distinct possibility that it was built on the site of the pub owned by the McConnell family.  Bolton Street is where the McConnells lived and where the real Frances Durnford lived when she was married.

John had a look at Fort Scratchley, and then we drove to Skye Point Road at Coal Point, quite a long way down, and probably should have been first point in our trip rather than how we backtracked.

As it is not known which house number that was my grandfather's, we gained an appreciation for where he lived, and this visit and the Cathedral were the only things I had requested for our trip.

Newcastle has a long history, both as an industrial town, and its convict links.

The convicts built much of the early infastructure, hacking out the rocks with an axe.  In the cemetery many convicts "Of the Iron Gang" were buried.

Then there is the Sandgate Cemetery, it is massive. However over 5000 photos and 3000 inscriptions have been digitised.  The Mc Connells of Bolton Street are buried there.

Bolton Street in 1880's

From Stockton to Newcastle in 1880's

Jessop House high on The Hill

Another 1880's photo.

The only disappointment was not being able to find the street that Capt Phillips and Isabella Warwick lived.
She fell down the stairs in 1889, so they must have had a terrace house.  The street no longer exists.
Perhaps being a ship's captain, they lived near the wharf, but there have been wholesale changes to the area, once the rail was introduced and later when the streets were widened.  The photos in the collection as follows provide a good insight into how life was in the past.

Overall opinion was that this is a tired and dirty place, with rubbish everywhere, graffiti on almost every wall, and a do not care attitude. Sad that it has come to that, and perhaps the reason why in a city of around 300K people there apparently is only 2 caravan parks.

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1723759/archival-revival-1800s-newcastle/


https://uoncc.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/george-freeman/