Thornton is a suburb in the

City of Maitland The City of Maitland is a local government area in the lower Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia. The area is situated adjacent to the New England Highway and the Hunter railway line. The Mayor of the City of Maitland is Cr. David T ...

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 Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It 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 ...

. Post code 2322, including Thornton,

Beresfield Beresfield is a north-western suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia from Newcastle's central business district. It is part of the City of Newcastle local government area. Population According to the 2016 census of Population, ...

Tarro Tarro is a north-western suburb of the Newcastle City Council local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It, and parts of nearby Beresfield, was originally known as Upper Hexham, "lower" Hexham being an older set ...

and

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden, Northumberland, Warden nearby, and ...

, had a population of 14,654 in 2001.

History

The Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Maitland area are the

Wonnarua The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa, are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Hunter Region ...

people. The suburb takes its name from

Thornton railway station Thornton railway station was a station on the Keighley-Queensbury section of the Queensbury Lines which ran between Keighley, Bradford and Halifax via Queensbury. The station served the village of Thornton, West Yorkshire, England ...

. The station was originally known as ''Woodford'', but the name was changed to Thornton in 1887 and relocated to a new site in 1913.Thornton Railway Station
NSW Environment & Heritage

Transport

opened in 1871. Thornton is serviced by

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 Hunte ...

trains of the

NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, along with limited interstate services into Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Its primary interc ...

network. Regular services take passengers East to Newcastle (18 minutes for the express) and West to Maitland. Less regular services also take passengers West to the Hunter Valley as far as Scone and North to Dungog. Thornton is the junction for a colliery branch line leading to the Bloomfield Coal Loop, a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

. A new industrial estate and increased residential subdivisions resulted in the RTA planning a major upgrade to the Weakleys Drive intersection, which was completed as of December 2008. DBT (Australia) opened their new complex here in December 2006.

Education

Thornton has a government primary school of Thornton Primary. It is also the home of Aspect Hunter School which offers schooling options for students with autism K-12 in the

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...

References

Suburbs of Maitland, New South Wales {{Maitland-geo-stub