NSWMining
Hamilton (NSW)
Before Beaumont Street’s cafés, this was the Australian Agricultural Company’s Pit Town.
1871Pit Town becomes the Municipality of Hamilton
WHAT STARTED IT
The Australian Agricultural Company found coal by boring on a hill in the west of its 2,000-acre Newcastle grant and sank its D Pit there into what became known as the Borehole seam. Miners’ cottages on small lots and narrow streets grew up around the pits as Pit Town, or the Borehole.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
Ninety ratepayers petitioned for a municipality, proclaimed on 11 December 1871 and named after Edward Hamilton, chairman of the A.A. Company. A railway platform followed in 1872, and the mining village grew into a residential and shopping suburb of nearly 15,000 people by 1921.
TURNING POINTS
1871About 370 men work at the A.A. Company’s Borehole Colliery, and residents look forward to incorporation.
1871The Municipal District of Hamilton is proclaimed on 11 December after a petition signed by ninety people.
1872George Donald, storekeeper, is chosen as first mayor, and a platform on the Great Northern Railway is built at Hamilton.
1921The municipality celebrates its jubilee with a population of nearly 15,000.
1938Hamilton is merged into the new Greater Newcastle council.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
An inner Newcastle suburb of about 4,600 people, known for the shops and restaurants of Beaumont Street. It was merged into Greater Newcastle in 1938, and by 1921 no trace of the old pits remained.