Adamstown, New South Wales


ADAMSTOWN: A TOWN LINKED TO OUR FAMILY


On 15 February 1911, in the Methodist Church at Raymond Terrace, Hilda Caroline Adam married Walter George Fairhall, and
this marriage resulted in the birth of Ronald Laurie Fairhall in 1912.  Hilda was the daughter of Catherine and Andrew
Laurie Adam, and granddaughter of Rebecca and Thomas Adam.  Thomas's name is permanently recorded in the locality of
ADAMSTOWN (Adam's Town), a Newcastle suburb.

Thomas Adam was born in Scotland at Kilmarnock (Ayrshire) in 1819.  He came to New South Wales in 1838 as an assisted
immigrant and eventually arrived in Newcastle in 1846 where he worked as a builder and contractor in that small fishing
and coal village.  Mr Adam took a great interest in politics, and was one of the main advocates for establishing
schools in Newcastle prior to the Public Schools system.

In 1869 the following paragraph appeared in the Newcastle Herald:
ADAMSTOWN is the name that is to be given to a new township which is about to be established between the Borehole
and New Lambton, near Mr Christian's, where Mr Thomas Adam of Blane Street, Newcastle, has recently purchased
between 50 and 60 acres of Crown Land.  This land is to be subdivided into a large number of small allotments,
and sold at most reasonable terms, so as to induce a population to settle upon it.  Many of the allotments have
already been disposed of, and in the course of a short time we may expect to see a number of huts erected in the locality".

The precise amount of land purchased was 54 acres, for which he paid £54 ($108 in today's money), and comprised the main
portion of the present suburb from Glebe Road south to midway between Victoria Street and Lockyer Street, and from Regent
Street in the east to a storm water channel on the western side.

Despite poor access, with a narrow track, partly through swampy land, linking Adam's Town to Merewether, and a track
through bushland to Charlestown, the Newcastle Chronicle described it as being "a good area to live as it is a
comparatively short distance from nine mines working good time and employing large numbers of men".

In the 1880's the Borough of Adamstown consisted mainly of mud brick huts, there was no sewerage, no street lighting
and no system of transportation, but petitions were collected and the Municipality of Adamstown was proclaimed on
31 December 1885, with its first Council election held the following March.

The first Post Office at Adamstown opened in 1875, water was connected to the municipality in 1892, a railway line was
opened in 1900, and gas lamps were installed in the main streets in 1911.  Today, Adamstown is a progressive suburb
of the city of Newcastle.

			- from an publication by Hunter District Historical Society

FROM: Adamstown - a Concise History