Kurri Kurri NSW

Claims the distinction of being the first town in NSW that owes its origins to government planning rather than historic happenstance. And the town’s street signs testify to its beginnings - many of the streets take their names from politicians who, presumably, had a hand in the planning that resulted in the gazetting of the Hunter Valley coal town in 1902. Half an hour north-west of Newcastle, Kurri Kurri once important coal mining town in the Hunter Valley Located 145 km from Sydney and 11.5 km from Cessnock, Kurri Kurri is an old coalmining town.

Sites of Interest

Kurri Kurri is within a few minutes drive of historic Maitland and the vineyards of the Lower Hunter.

The most imposing building in town is the three-storey Kurri Kurri Hotel, whose balconies and arches are richly decorated with iron lace.

The Sir Edgeworth David Memorial Museum in the grounds of the Kurri Kurri High School has a rich store of historic material and artefacts.

Kurri Kurri was laid out on Crown land in 1902 to serve the growing community of miners and their families who were living in makeshift accommodation since taking up employment at the recently opened collieries of Stanford and Pelaw Main which were opened in 1901.

Population

In conjunction with neighbouring Towns it has a population of 13,625.

Thus the population of 9,607 in 1933 had declined to 7,903 by 1954. The pits began to close from the late 1950s - Stanford Main in 1957, Pelaw Main in 1962 and Richmond Main in 1967. Wine slowly supplanted coal as the centrepiece of the regional economy as demand fell and large open-cut mines began to open in the upper Hunter region.

Land sales commenced in 1903 and within one year Kurri Kurri had a population of 1,300. With 5,885 inhabitants by 1911 it soon became one of NSW's larger towns.

Landholders & Mines

The very first European landholder in the area was Benjamin Blackburn who was granted 400 acres on the banks of Wallis Creek at Richmond Vale. Coal was discovered in the district by William Keene in 1856 but the full potential of the Greta coal seam was not recognised until 1886 when T.W. Edgeworth David did some exploratory work. The first colliery of the South Maitland Coal Field (East Greta) was opened in 1891 and many others followed after the turn of the century.

The Great Depression dealt a severe blow to the industry and mechanisation after World War II saw major job losses in the 1950s.