NSWMining
Adamstown
A miners’ village between two collieries became its own municipality.
1886Municipality proclaimed
WHAT STARTED IT
In 1869 Thomas Adams bought 54 acres of Crown land between the Borehole and New Lambton collieries, planning small, affordable allotments; Thomas and Henry Bryant later carried out the subdivision. The village that grew there, on the road from Newcastle to Lake Macquarie, housed coal miners and their families.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
By 1881 about 400 people lived there, with a school, a Mechanics’ Institute, three hotels and four stores. After a petition in 1884, the Municipal District of Adamstown was proclaimed and published in the Gazette in January 1886, and a railway station opened on the new Homebush–Waratah line in 1887.
TURNING POINTS
1886The Municipal District of Adamstown is proclaimed, published in the Gazette on 8 January.
1886The first council election is held at the Adamstown Mechanics’ Institute on 27 February.
1887Adamstown station opens on the Homebush–Waratah railway on 15 August.
1889The Adamstown Rosebuds soccer club is formed.
1938Adamstown is merged into the City of Greater Newcastle.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A residential suburb of about 6,300 people. The former junction for the Belmont branch line is now the start of the Fernleigh Track.