Newcastle
Mulubinba
Australia's Second-Oldest City
On the lands of the Awabakal and Worimi people.
schedule 1 min read / Updated Apr 2026
Australia's second-oldest city, founded in 1804 as a penal colony for the worst convict offenders. Newcastle has reinvented itself in the last two decades around its surf beaches, art scene, and the world's largest coal-export port.
Newcastle was founded as a penal settlement in 1804 to hold convicts considered too dangerous for Sydney. The city sits at the mouth of the Hunter River, on Awabakal and Worimi country. The Awabakal name for the area is Mulubinba, meaning 'place of the swamp fern'. After the convicts came the coal miners, and Newcastle grew into the largest coal-export port in the world, a title it still holds.
The city has remade itself since the 1989 earthquake (the deadliest in modern Australian history) and the steelworks closed in 1999. The waterfront, Honeysuckle, and the historic terraces of The Hill are now busy with cafes, breweries, and the Newcastle Art Gallery. The 6 kilometre Bathers Way coastal walk links Nobbys Beach (with its iconic 1858 lighthouse), Newcastle Beach, the ocean baths, Bar Beach, Dixon Park and Merewether Beach.
Newcastle is two hours by car or train from Sydney and is the gateway to the Hunter Valley wine region (an hour inland) and Port Stephens (an hour north).
Things to do
Recommended Experiences
8 bookable experiences at or near Newcastle.
You may also like
Attribution
Sources & credits
Content (1)
Images (1)
- Newcastle, New South Wales Harbour.jpg · jason goulding · CC BY 2.0
Images sourced from Wikimedia Commons under licenses that permit commercial use. If you are the rights holder and believe an attribution is incorrect, please contact us.