Port of Newcastle

The Port of Newcastle is a major seaport in the city of Newcastle, New South Wales Australia.

A bulk carrier entering the Port of Newcastle

It is made up of facilities in the Hunter River estuary. The port was the first commercial export port in Australia and is the world's busiest coal export port. Annual exports of coal from Newcastle exceeded A$15 billion in 2012/13. Newcastle berthed more than 2,200 ships a year in 2012/13.[1]

The port's harbourmaster is the Port Authority of New South Wales. Cargo facilities are operated by Port Waratah Coal Services and Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group at Kooragang Island; as well as other operators at Mayfield, Carrington and Walsh Point. There are also plans to build a cruise terminal.

On April 2014 Premier Mike Baird and Treasurer Andrew Constance announced that a “a consortium which comprises Hastings Funds Management and Chinese state-owned China Merchants” had successfully bid $1.75 billion for a 98-year lease of the Port of Newcastle.

History

Pre-colonial History
Admiralty Chart No 2117 Australia, East Coast, Newcastle Harbour, Published 1852

The Awabakal people were the first inhabitants of Newcastle (Muloobinba) living around the harbour and foreshore. Discarded shells of shellfish harvested by local clans for thousands of years formed enormous middens which were burned by Europeans to produce lime for building purposes.[2]

Shipwrecks

It has been estimated that over 200 vessels have been lost entering or leaving the Port of Newcastle. Vessels have been recorded lost in and around the areas of; Port Hunter, Hunter River, Nobbys Head, Stockton Bight, Stockton Beach (Newcastle Beach), Oyster Bank, Williams River and inland Raymond Terrace. [3]

  • Shipwreck of the Regent Murray, Newcastle Harbour, NSW, 4 April 1899
  • Shipwrecks Regent Murray, Wendouree and Lindus, Newcastle Harbour, NSW, 1899
  • Bretagne in Newcastle Harbour, NSW, 1915

See also
  • Port Darwin another port with a 99 year lease with a Chinese company

References
  1. "Annual Report 2012/2013" (PDF). Newcastle Port Corporation. September 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  2. "Port of Newcastle - about - our - port". Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  3. "Shipwrecks of the Newcastle region including Oyster Bank and the Hunter River". Retrieved 9 October 2020.

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