Beresfield is a north-western
suburb of
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Australia from Newcastle's
central business district. It is part of the
City of Newcastle
The City of Newcastle is a local government area in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The City of Newcastle incorporates much of the area of the Newcastle metropolitan area.
The Lord Mayor of City of Newcastle Council is Counci ...
local government area.
Population
According to the
2016 census of Population, there were 3,181 people in Beresfield.
* Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 5.6% of the population.
* 86.0% of people were born in Australia and 89.4% of people only spoke English at home.
* The most common responses for religion were No Religion 25.5%, Anglican 25.2% and Catholic 24.9%.
Geography
Beresfield, like the neighbouring suburbs of Tarro, Woodberry and Thornton, is located on a low ridge rising out of the surrounding floodplain and wetlands of the Hunter River. Beresfield is divided by Anderson Drive (formerly Maitland Road) which runs east to west. The part of Beresfield to the north of Anderson Drive includes the shopping centre and railway station. The part south of Anderson Drive includes the bowling club, swimming pool, sports oval, golf course and Newcastle Memorial Park cemetery and
crematorium
A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also b ...
.
History
Beresfield, has for a long time, been a centre of industry owing to its source of
coal mining. The suburban community has rapidly grown into a rural area since modern times.
On 31 July 1925,
Beresfield railway station
Beresfield railway station is located on the Main Northern line in New South Wales, Australia. It opened on 31 July 1925, serving the western Newcastle suburb of Beresfield.
History
Beresfield railway station opened on 31 July 1925.
1997 co ...
was opened.
On 23 October 1997, Beresfield came to its significant attention when a
FreightCorp
FreightCorp (formally the ''Freight Rail Corporation'') was a railway operator owned by the Government of New South Wales responsible for intrastate and some interstate rail cargo handling from its creation in January 1989 until it was privatis ...
coal train ran through a red signal, resulting in a massive derailment of a second coal train. Three
82 class diesel locomotives were destroyed in the collision.
Transport
It has a
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
, which opened in 1925.
The station is served by
NSW TrainLink's
Hunter line
The Hunter Line is a commuter train line operated by NSW TrainLink, running from Newcastle to Dungog and Scone in the New South Wales Hunter Region. It operates on the Newcastle, Main North and North Coast lines.
Description of Route
Hunter ...
. The suburb is bisected by the
New England Highway
New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland at its northern end to Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales at its southern end. It is part of Australia's National Highway system, an ...
.
Facilities
The first public school in Beresfield was Upper Hexham Public School, now in the grounds of Beresfield Public School. The closest public secondary school is Francis Greenway High School.
Beresfield has a small shopping centre featuring a post office, banks, Food for Less (Woolworths) supermarket, newsagent, physiotherapist, doctors' surgeries, petrol stations, take-aways and other stores. There is a branch of the Newcastle Region Library and an unused police station.
Sporting facilities include a swimming pool, bowling club, golf course, cricket oval and rugby and soccer fields.
Churches include the Anglican church of St Pauls, which held its first service in 1949. The first timber St Pauls and its hall were built in 1955. A second brick church was built in 1980 following a fire.
In the 1970s a new Roman Catholic parish church, Our Lady of Lourdes, was built at Beresfield. The original parish church had been located in Tarro. A station was opened at Beresfield and to serve as a mass centre a former Army hut was transported from Greta and erected where the present parish church now stands. St Jude's was demolished with the new church taking the title of the old Parish church.
Active clubs and associations include local
Scouting,
Girl Guides
Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...
, Lions & Rotary Clubs. Beresfield Thornton Girl Guide District is a very active youth organisation. The Girl Guides continue to give service to the local community by participating in Clean Up Australia Day, fundraising for charity and collecting items for those less fortunate.
Beresfield is the location of Newcastle Memorial Park cemetery and crematorium.
Sport
Beresfield has many sporting clubs including Thornton-Beresfield Bears Rugby League Club, Beresfield Memorial Cricket Club, Beresfield Football & Senior Soccer Clubs, Beresfield Touch Football, Beresfield Netball Club and Beresfield Golf Club.
Industry
Beresfield has long been home to fathers employed in the mining industry in Newcastle.
The Kent Colliery was located in Beresfield. In the 1940s the colliery was the subject of an investigation into subsidence complaints.
A major employer in the area has been the Baiada/Steggles poultry processing plant.
Image:Upper Hexham Public School 2.JPG, First public school in Beresfield, 1881
Image:Beresfield Post Office.JPG, Beresfield Post Office
References
External links
*
Geographic coordinates
The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...
:
{{City of Newcastle suburbs
Suburbs of Newcastle, New South Wales