Beresfield
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Beresfield is a north-western
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
,
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
from Newcastle's
central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
. 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 the City of Newcastle Council is Co ...
local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...
.


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, crematory or cremation center is a venue for the cremation of the Death, 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 ...
.


History

Beresfield, has for a long time, been a centre of industry owing to its source of
coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
. The suburban community has rapidly grown into a rural area since modern times. On 31 July 1925, Beresfield railway station was opened. On 23 October 1997, Beresfield came to its significant attention when a
FreightCorp FreightCorp, formally Freight Rail, was a railway operator owned by the Government of New South Wales. It was responsible for intrastate and some interstate Rail freight transport, railway cargo handling from its foundation in January 1989 unti ...
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 using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
, which opened in 1925. The station is served by
NSW TrainLink NSW TrainLink is a regional train and coach operator in Australia, providing services throughout New South Wales and into Australian Capital Territory, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria (state), Victoria, Queensland and South Australia ...
's
Hunter line The Hunter Line (HUN) is an intercity rail service running from Newcastle, with two branches to Dungog and Scone in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It operates on the Newcastle, Main North and North Coast lines. Descripti ...
. The suburb is bisected by the
New England Highway New England Highway is an long highway in Australia running from Yarraman, Queensland, Yarraman, north of Toowoomba, Queensland, at its northern end to Hexham, New South Wales, Hexham at Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle, New South Wales, ...
.


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 (which was ranked number one in Australia in 2020 and 2022), 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 Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...
,
Girl Guides Girl Guides (or Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) are organisations within the Scout Movement originally and largely still for girls and women only. The Girl Guides began in 1910 with the formation of Girlguiding, The ...
, 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

{{City of Newcastle suburbs Suburbs of Newcastle, New South Wales