Newcastle Waters is a town and locality off the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

. It is classified as a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

that contains a number of preserved historic buildings, including Jones's Store and the Junction Hotel.

Geography

north of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

, Newcastle Waters is located within the federal division of Lingiari, the territory electoral division of Barkly and the local government area of the

Barkly Region The Barkly Region, formerly Barkly Shire, is a Local Government Areas of the Northern Territory, local government area of the Northern Territory of Australia, administered by the Barkly Regional Council. The region's main town is Tennant Creek ...

, inside

Newcastle Waters Station Newcastle Waters Station is a pastoral lease between Alice Springs and Darwin, supporting about 45,000 cattle in a notably well-watered area of 10,353 square kilometres. Kerry Packer was once a partner in the station, and sent his son James ...

, a large cattle station with over 40,000 head of cattle. The nearest petrol station and accommodation is found south at the town Elliott.

History

John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...

reached the area on 23 May 1861 in an unsuccessful attempt to cross the continent, he again passed through the area in 1862 on another attempt to cross the continent, which he was successful. The town was named after the Duke of Newcastle at the time. The Overland Telegraph Station was established in 1872. In 1926, Newcastle Waters was required by the ''North Australia Act 1926'' to be the permanent site of the seat of government for the now-defunct Territory of North Australia. The provisional seat of government for the territory was Darwin, and nothing was done to establish the new capital before the act was repealed by the ''Northern Territory (Administration) Act 1931''. In 1935, Qantas Empire Air Services was using the Newcastle Waters landing strip as a link in its mail and passenger run, but the runway proved unsatisfactory, and the service was halted in November 1937. The township was economically dependent on

droving Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding, often associated with cattle, in which case it is a cattle drive (particularly in the US). Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the ...

and the arrival of road trains meant that by the early 1960s it had been reduced to a virtual ghost town.

Demographics

The

2016 Australian census The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...

which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Newcastle Waters had 64 people living within its boundaries. In the 2021 census, Newcastle Waters had a population of 122 people, 49.2% female and 50.8% male. The median age of the Newcastle Waters population was 25 years, 13 years below the national median of 38.

Education

The Newcastle Waters School draws most of its few students from the Marlinja homeland community which lies on the northern boundary of the town.

References

External links

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

br>Newcastle Waters
{{authority control Barkly Region Towns in the Northern Territory Former Australian capital cities