Hunter Street, Newcasrle, NSW, Australia

 

When I was young it was considered to be a big deal to go into town to go the movies or to do some shopping and by in town I mean into Newcastle mainly Hunter Street.

So, this week I will write a bit about Hunter Street’s history and present.

Hunter Street is a major road in the Newcastle central business district, in New South Wales. The street, formerly three separate thoroughfares, extends from Pacific Street in the city's east, to Selma Street in Newcastle West and since 2008 has been the focus of community-led creative enterprises and projects.

Hunter Street runs in the vicinity of an early nineteenth-century track known as Wellington Street that extended from Watt Street (formerly George Street) in the east to Perkins Street in the west. The strip was renamed Hunter Street by Henry Dangar in 1823 and by the mid nineteenth-century commercial and residential properties had been built on most addresses east of Perkins Street.

By 1900, Hunter Street had stretched a long way and had 26 hotels operating along the street. In 1887the first steam trams came into operation by 1898 the first restrictions on vehicular traffic drawn by animals were introduced

Drainage problems and raw sewerage necessitated the sealing of Hunter Street, first carried out with wooden blocks, concrete and asphalt.

After the opening of the Newcastle Steelworks in 1915, Newcastle became increasingly suburban, and Hunter Street developed as a destination for commerce and retail. The size and extravagance of Newcastle's early twentieth-century department stores demonstrates the popularity of city shopping.

Established as the city's main street for commercial and retail activity, Hunter Street entered a period of severe decline after World War II. However, it recovered over time.

Hunter Street developed as the commercial and civic hub of the region. Along its spine were the pubs, banks, insurance houses, shops, department stores, and cooperative societies that formed the civic and cultural life of Newcastle.

In 1989 an earthquake hit Newcastle and due to the damage making Hunter Street inaccessible for two weeks.

The in 1990 there was a recession which coupled with record youth unemployment, brought the emptying of Hunter Street to a terrible low in 2008, with the vacancy rate at 20% and chronically vacant properties beginning to deteriorate.

In recent years there have been efforts to clean up and bring life back into Hunter Street, as I haven’t been there myself I can’t say what it is like now.