Woodville, New South Wales

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Woodville
New South Wales

Postcode:

2321

Coordinates:

32°40.7′S 151°36.5′E / -32.6783, 151.6083Coordinates: 32°40.7′S 151°36.5′E / -32.6783, 151.6083

Time zone:

• Summer (DST)

AEST (UTC+10)

AEDT (UTC+11)

Location:

174 km (108 mi) N of Sydney
42 km (26 mi) NW of Newcastle
19 km (12 mi) WNW of Raymond Terrace
11.5 km (7 mi) NNE of Maitland

LGA:

Region:

Hunter

County:

Durham

Parish:

Butterwick

State District:

Maitland

Federal Division:

Paterson

Mean Max Temp	Mean Min Temp	Rainfall
29.6 °C ^{85 °F}	6.1 °C ^{43 °F}	925.2 mm ^{36.4 in}

Localities around Woodville:
Tocal	Duns Creek, Butterwick	Seaham
Mindaribba	Woodville	Seaham
Bolwarra Heights	Wallalong	Seaham

Woodville is a very small township in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia that is shared between the Port Stephens and Maitland LGAs. Most of the town lies to the east of the Paterson River in the Port Stephens Local Government Area (LGA) while a small portion (approximately 1.3 km² (0.5 sq mi)) to the west of the Paterson is within the boundaries of the Maitland LGA.

Woodville's primary land use is agricultural, although housing and small-acre rural residential lots are increasingly significant. Its agriculture consists mainly of broad-acre hay production, along with beef cattle grazing, turf-farming, poultry and olive production. It sits on the floodplains of the lower Hunter River and is subject to periodic flooding.

The town's centre consists of only a few buildings: an old timber shop, a pretty stone church - no longer used for religious services - a pictureseque timber hall associated with the church and a few houses of mixed age and design.

Its most famous resident was the champion boxer Les Darcy, who was born either at Iona - a small hamlet within the Woodville area - or at the nearby estate Stradbroke, where he grew up.

[edit] History

The Woodville region was occupied originally by Aboriginals, most likely the Worimi people. It offered abundant natural resources, with rivers, extensive wetlands, lakes, open woodland and rainforest. In the early 1800s, the first Europeans known to enter the region were timber-getters seeking to exploit the extensive red cedar trees that grew on and near the banks of the Paterson and Hunter rivers. Felled trees were floated down-river to timber mills in Newcastle.

Woodville has some historical buildings, such as Dunmore House, the Woodville shop and the homestead of the historical property Stradbroke, which is listed in the Australian Heritage Database.^[1] Increasingly, traditional farms are being subdivided for semi-rural small holdings.

The Woodville School of Arts dates to 1877 and the Gothic Revival. All Saints Church features impressive arched and leadlight windows following its restoration work in 1922, and the Iona School dates to 1918.

All Saints Church and hall.	Iona School Of Arts, a community hall.	Hay wagon at Woodville.	An old abandoned timber and brick house at Iona, Woodville.
The historic timber general store at Woodville, April 2008.