Morpeth, New South Wales

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Morpeth New South Wales
LGA:	City of Maitland
State District:	Maitland
Federal Division:	Paterson

Morpeth (which takes its name from Morpeth, near Newcastle, in England) is a small historical township in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia. It is situated in the City of Maitland, on the Hunter River, 37 km north-west of Newcastle and just 5 km north-east of Maitland.

The town was a major river boat transportation hub in the 19th century before declining in the 20th century after the North Coast Railway Line between Sydney and Brisbane bypassed it.

The town today is a popular tourist destination due to its many historical buildings and river bank setting.

[edit] History

Once covered in dense rainforest the Morpeth area was probably occupied by the Gringgai clan of the Wanaruah indigeous peoples who called it 'Illalaung'. There were also lots of mushrooms brought in for farming known as Chi Chung Mushrooms.

The first Europeans in the area were the party of Lt Col. William Paterson who undertook an exploration of the Hunter River in 1801. Paterson named the locality Green Hills.

The land here was granted in 1821 to Lt Edward Close, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, as a reward for service as Engineer of Public Works at Newcastle. He built an impressive homestead, Closebourne House (still standing), around 1826 which became the residence of the various Bishops of Newcastle from 1848 to 1912.

A bridge over Wallis Creek was erected in 1827 facilitating trade with the township of Wallis Plains (now Maitland) which, although 40 km away by river, was just 5 km by road.

The years from 1827-1830 saw Green Hills developing as a river port. However, the locality really took off after the arrival, in 1831, of the first paddle steamer (the Sophia Jane). It was soon a regular, along with the PS William IV, the first Australian-made, ocean-going paddle steamer. In 1832 the first proper wharf was erected and the first two inns were licensed. A proper road to Maitland was built by convict labour in 1833.

Close subdivided the land with the first batch of allotments sold in 1834. A private town was established which, at this time, took the name Morpeth from a town of the same name about 25 miles north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England.

Morpeth became the major port of the Hunter Valley and surrounding districts between 1832 and 1890, with ships calling first at Newcastle on their way up-river. A regular smaller steamer service operated from Morpeth further up-river to Maitland and Paterson. An important trade, cultural, commercial and religious centre, much of the Hunter Valley's produce passed through its wharves en route to Newcastle and Sydney while most persons and goods headed from those centres into the valley and beyond also set foot on its wharves.

Lt Close set up the first school in 1836, the year both Anglican and Roman Catholic services commenced. A Catholic Church was built in 1836 and the foundation stone of St James' Church was laid in 1837. Morpeth remains home to the Synod meetings of the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle and the official residence of the Bishop of Newcastle. The first post office opened in 1838, a steam mill was built in 1840, and a soap works in 1844 where Charles Upfold had some involvement before purchasing a soap factory in Newcastle. In the 1840s Caleb Soul, of Soul-Pattison pharmaceuticals, manufactured talcum powder and William Arnott, later of Arnott's biscuits, had a bakery here. Their businesses were both located on the river side of Swan St, between Tank and Northumberland Sts. The first national school opened in 1862, the year the population peaked at 1830. There were ten hotels in the town when it became a municipality in 1866.

However, Newcastle had begun to grow, and the Great Northern Railway, which reached Maitland in 1857, initially bypassed Morpeth. Although the railway was extended to the town on a branch line from East Maitland in 1864, and directly to the wharves in 1870. The completion of the rail link between Newcastle and Sydney in 1889 and the gradual silting up of the river sealed the fate of the river trade and the fortunes of Morpeth, although the ships of the Newcastle & Hunter River Steamship Company, such as the PS Namoi continued docking at Morpeth into the 20th century.

Morpeth was formally amalgamated into the City of Maitland in 1969. It re-emerged in the late 1980s as a tourist attraction with the opening of the gift shops.