Hunter Valley History
The first human inhabitants of the Hunter region (Coquun) were the Wonnarua (people of the hills and plains) the Worimi occupied the north eastern shores and the Awabakal on the south eastern shores. Their history in the Hunter Valley Region goes back some 40 000 years.
In 1796 fishermen sheltering from bad weather discovered coal in what is now Newcastle Harbour however the official European discovery of the Hunter River and region occurred in 1797, when Lieutenant John Shortland during a search for escaped convicts who had absconded from Sydney Cove with the HMS Cumberland. Shortland described a "very fine river" which he named the Hunter River after the Governor of the colony of New South Wales, John Hunter.
Newcastle Harbour and the Hunter river started to be unofficially visited by many timber getters, coal miners and escaped convicts. Which led the then Governor King to seriously reconsider the economic value of the Hunter region.
In 1801 a small convict camp was created in present day Newcastle to mine coal and gather timber and was named Kingstown, however this settlement was short-lived and was closed only a year later.
In 1804 another settlement at Newcastle was created for the "worst of the worst" convicts who had committed secondary offences in the colony. This Newcastle penal settlement was called Coal river also Kingstown, but was renamed Newcastle after the famous English coal port Newcastle Upon Tyne. This penal colony lasted till 1823 when a new penal colony for secondary offenders was established at Port Macquarie.
In the 1820's the first land grants in the Hunter region were given to convicts at Paterson's Plains as reward for services or good behaviour. Soon after free settlers were granted land along the Hunter, Williams and branching rivers with convict servants to help work them. This led to river port towns such as Morpeth, Maitland, Raymond Terrace, Paterson and Dungog becoming important river trade centres.
Landowners in the Hunter amongst other things produced, timber, cattle, horses, wheat, wool, maize and wine. With James King of Irrawang (Raymond Terrace) becoming the founding president of the Hunter River Vinegerons Association and the first person to make wine for export in the colony. John Portus of Morpeth Wheat Mills produced so much flour at he drove Sydney mills out of business.
Travel by land was often uncertain in pioneering times due to bad roads and crossing the rivers by punts, people, produce and livestock were lost due to their unreliability. Hence shipping companies were created to bring valuable cargoes to the cities. The most famous of which were the Australasian Steam Navigation Company and the Hunter River New Steam Ship Company whom were in constant competition with each other to provide the best rate and the fastest ships.
With the introduction of the Great Northern Railway in the late1850's the river port towns listed above started to decline with all commercial shipping ceasing by the early 20th century. However West Maitland (now simply Maitland) prospered as well as Dungog who received the eastern branch of the Railway. Most produce was then shipped from the New England area straight to the port of Newcastle replacing Morpeth as the main port of the Hunter Region.
Today the Hunter Valley is well known for its fine wines, coal industry and is a vibrant tourism region.