Hexham is a suburb of the city of Newcastle, about inland from the Newcastle CBD in New South Wales, Australia on the bank of the Hunter River.
History
Settlement occurred at Hexham in the 1820s when the land was granted to Edward Sparke. Hexham was named after the market town of Hexham, England with both towns being near to a Newcastle and sharing a history with one another; many of the coal miners from Newcastle upon Tyne and elsewhere in Northumberland moved to New South Wales at the time of settlement.
The history of Hexham is closely associated with that of the nearby suburbs of Tarro (originally Upper Hexham), Ash Island, Tomago and Minmi.
Geography
Hexham measures approximately from north to south and from east to west, covering an area of . The suburb is bordered to the east by the Hunter River - Coquun and by Ironbark Creek - Toohrnbing to the south, while to the west the suburb consists mainly of unproductive swampland and floodplains. Almost all settlement exists within a narrow corridor stretching along the Pacific Highway between the Main Northern railway line and the Hunter River - Coquun. This corridor, which is occupied mainly by highways and industrial areas, covers an area of only . Within the zone residential development is confined to 3 small areas measuring only in total. On Maitland Road there is Hexham Park which has a number of facilities including a cricket pitch, rugby union field, lights, amenities and a grandstand.
Transport
Roads
Hexham is located at the junction of the Pacific Highway to Brisbane via the coastal route, the New England Highway and is close to the northern end of the Pacific Motorway. The Hunter Valley Dairy Co-operative took advantage of this key location to establish its first milkbar under the Co-operative's signature dairy brand Oak to serve locals and longer distance travellers outside its Hexham manufacturing facility. Many years after the closure of the co-operative and the sale of the Oak milk brand Lion to Parmalat, the Hexham manufacturing site now operated and owned by Brancourts is often referred to as the "old Oak site".
Hexham is located just upstream of the Hunter River delta and its various islands, and as such it was a relatively convenient place for crossing to the north bank of the river. A punt was established in the 1800s, followed by a steam punt, which eventually carried motor traffic. As traffic levels grew after World War I, Hexham became a bottleneck for road traffic. A decision was made in the late 1930s to construct a bridge, however construction was delayed by World War II. Eventually the first two-lane bridge was opened in December 1952. The first bridge is a steel truss bridge with a central lifting span, designed to allow shipping to travel upstream. By the 1970s, this bridge was becoming a bottleneck and the decision was made to increase capacity by building a second bridge for all northbound traffic. This concrete high-level fixed bridge was built just upstream of the original bridge (converted to carry southbound traffic only) and was opened in August 1987.
Railways
Hexham has its own railway station on the Main Northern railway line, served by an hourly NSW TrainLink service between Newcastle and Maitland/Telarah for a majority of the day. It was the riverine terminus of the privately owned Richmond Vale Railway line, an early coal hauling railway from Minmi and Stockrington which crossed the Main Northern railway line at right angles. Coal loading at the wharf ended in 1967 and the railway line to the adjoining workshops was closed in October 1973. The remaining section of the Richmond Vale Railway was closed in September 1987.
Shipping
Hexham was once a riverport of some importance in the lower Hunter and was known as Port Hunter, dual named Yohaaba. In the colonial days travellers from Newcastle to Maitland could travel to Hexham by boat and then disembark to travel by road to Maitland via Upper Hexham (Tarro), Four Mile Creek and Green Hills, the road being more direct than the river which had many bends after Raymond Terrace. Coal loading at Hexham began about 1850.