Burwood was a distinct entity from Merewether until 20 August 20 1885, when Municipality of Merewether was proclaimed: it incorporated the former suburb of Merewether and the coal townships of Glebe and Burwood. That Municipality was merged with others to create the City of Greater Newcastle in 1938. _________ "Now located on the corner of Kenrick and Farquhar streets, The Junction, the first community of Josephite Sisters was appointed to Burwood Parish in 1888. This later became known as the parish of St Joseph, Merewether." source: FIONA McDONALD, OLIVIA KELLY, GLENN MCNAMEE-ORROCK, MITCHELL NESBITT and CLAUDIA BOYCE, "120 years of history" The Newcastle Herald (Supplement) 6 May 2008 (late edition) p. 43 © 2008 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited _________ "And the story behind the Burwood tramway, the later railway, goes like this: "Dr Mitchell, a former British army surgeon, came to Sydney in 1821. "He bought land south of Newcastle, which he called the Burwood Estate, and added to it until he ruled over some 931 hectares of land. In 1846 he built a copper smelting works at what is now Murdering Gully, Merewether, just above the present Burwood Beach. "Mitchell accumulated assets including coke ovens, coalmines, brickworks and 13 kilometres of railways, but by the time of his death in 1869 many ventures had failed and the estate was burdened with debt. "Enter Edward Christopher Merewether, his son-in-law, who took effective control of the Burwood Estate through his wife's inheritance when Mitchell's widow died in 1872. "E.C. Merewether revitalised the estate's failing fortunes, leasing mining rights then left for Sydney to live, leaving day-to-day business to his cousin. "And the vital artery taking coal into the Newcastle waterfront from three large collieries on Merewether's land was the Burwood tramroad, or railway. "Today, there's little trace of the famous line which once ran from Glenrock Lagoon to Merewether Beach via a coastal railway and two tunnels, now long sealed. It had several names here, including the Redhead Railway and the Burwood Beach railway. "The route then went down Watkins Street, across Glebe Road east of the present war memorial, down the side of the old Hunter Theatre, crossed Parkway Avenue and down Glovers Lane, through Civic Park right to Newcastle Harbour. "Some older Merewether residents still remember tales of Toronto's former "Coffee Pot" locomotive operating on the Burwood line from 1910. But earlier, in 1878, was a little tank engine called Burwood. It's now the subject of a revealing article by noted Hunter coal rail historian John Shoebridge in the April edition of Light Railways, a specialist Australian magazine dealing with industrial and narrow gauge railways. ... "Shoebridge, a retired mining engineer and colliery manager, has spent the past 15 years tracking down the full intriguing story behind all the ventures. ... "As Shoebridge acknowledged this week, the story of the now lost Burwood railway was long and fascinating. " 'The name Burwood actually comes from Mrs Mitchell's family home in England,' he said. 'It still exists, but as an old people's home near Heathrow Airport. " 'And the use of the name Burwood for the estate raises the suggestion that perhaps it was his wife's marriage dowry that enabled the property to be bought in the first place.' ... "Shoebridge said many people perhaps wouldn't appreciate the struggle Mitchell had to create the rail line into Newcastle waterfront. " 'His line [from present Merewether] had to go through land owned by the Australian Agricultural Company [or A.A.Co]. He and others would pay rent but a condition was that they didn't load any coal on the rail wagons. It was totally farcical,' he said. " 'Mitchell fought it and in 1851 the NSW Legislative Council passed a special Tram Road Act which enabled him to build a line [to carry coal] through the A.A.Co land.' "Shoebridge said Mitchell had established the Newcastle Coal and Copper Company to enable coalmining and smelting works at Burwood. The line was seen as benefiting the whole colony of NSW. "The venture, however, then nearly broke him because people soon went off to the gold rushes, causing a labour shortage, and the business was soon let to a syndicate. "The mining historian said the original Burwood Colliery started off at Glenrock Lagoon, and its two railway tunnels were the first in NSW. "The assets of the Burwood Coal Co., however, were later taken over in 1894 by the Scottish Australian Mining Company. "He said the new owners found the Glenrock site too difficult to work and decided not to use the coast railway to The Junction. Instead, they hauled coal from a newer mine site, Burwood No.3 Colliery on present Burwood Road, at Whitebridge, through Adamstown down to Newcastle wharves. "Today, even this mine has disappeared and the land redeveloped for new housing. " 'The only living memorial left there for the moment is the Burwood Bowling Club opposite,' Shoebridge said. "Other district mines, however, continued to use parts of the old Burwood Line through The Junction, until the last coal train ran in August 1954. At that stage, old timers say it only serviced four small pits around Merewether. "These days, the name Burwood also exists as a narrow street behind the Newcastle Tax Office. This survives from the days when coal trains trundled under Laman Street, through Civic Park and down Burwood Street, then crossed Hunter Street to the coal wharves. "Newcastle's most obvious relic of the historic Burwood coal era, however, had little in common with the seafront railway. "It's the 15.5-metre-tall mining headframe relocated from Whitebridge in 1988 and now towering over Stewart Avenue in the West End." source: Mike Scanlon, "History. What's in a name?", The Newcastle Herald 12 April 2008 (late edition) p. 12 © 2008 Copyright John Fairfax Holdings Limited. _________ Stubbed my toe on that tramline a few times as a kid at The Junction ("Manners Maketh Man"). There is still a Burwood Inn in the area (Merewether). _________ "Rugby Union was played as an organised sport in the Hunter region in 1876 when among the first clubs were Centennial, Advance Carlton, Waratah, Rosedale, Carrington, Singleton, Maitland United, Newcastle, Federals, Burwood, Merewether, Ferndale, New Lambton, Maitland Pearls, Maitland Albion, Tighes Hill and Raymond Terrace." source: Norm Barney, "The Beginning Of A Sporting Century" Newcastle Herald (Supplement) 9 September 1997 p. 7 Copyright of John Fairfax Group Pty Ltd _________ Regards 2009/9/4 Heather Macdonald <[email protected]>: > Can anyone tell me where this place was please? > taken from a 1886 birth cert - Burwood Newcastle