Cessnock (Hunter valley) (wikipedia)

is a city in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about 52 km (32 mi) by road west of Newcastle. It is the administrative centre of the City of Cessnock LGA and was named after an 1826 grant of land called Cessnock Estate, which was owned by John Campbell. The local area was once known as “The Coalfields” is the gateway city to the vineyards of the Hunter Valley, which includes Pokolbin, Mount View, Broke, Rothbury, and Branxton.

History

The transition to wine service centre from a once prosperous mining town has been a long and at times difficult process.

Cessnock lies between Australia’s earliest European settlements – Sydney, the Hawkesbury River and Newcastle. Lying on the land route between these important settlements it provided early European contact with indigenous people who have inhabited the Cessnock area for more than 3,000 years. The Darkinjung people were the major inhabitants at the time of European contact, which subsequently proved to be disastrous for the Darkinjung tribe. Many were killed or died as a result of European diseases. Others were forced onto neighbouring tribal territory and killed. The city of Cessnock abounds in indigenous place names and names with indigenous association which is indicative of this settlement and include Congewai, Kurri Kurri, Laguna, Nulkaba and Wollombi.

Pastoralists commenced settling the land in the 1820s. Cessnock was named by Scottish settler John Campbell, after his grandfather’s baronial Cessnock Castle in Ayrshire to reflect the aristocratic heritage and ambitions for this estate. The township of Cessnock developed from 1850, as a service centre at the junction of the Great North Road from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, with branches to Maitland and Singleton.

The establishment of the South Maitland coalfields generated extensive land settlement between 1903 and 1923. The current pattern of urban development, transport routes and industrial landscape was laid at this time. The surveying of the Greta coal seam by Professor Edgeworth David around 1888 became the impetus for considerable social and economic change in the area with the development of the coal mining industry.

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia‘s best known wine regions. Located in the state of New South Wales, the region has played a pivotal role in the history of Australian wine as one of the first wine regions planted in the early 19th century. Hunter Valley Semillon is widely considered the iconic wine of the region but the Hunter produces wine from a wide variety of grapes including Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Verdelho.Under Australia’s wine appellation system, the Hunter Region is one Geographic Indication (GI) that is sub-divided into the Upper and Lower Hunter Valley. Within the Lower Hunter Valley is the recognised sub-region of Broke Fordwich. The traditional (or Hunter Proper) is the Lower Hunter Valley. Much of the history of Hunter was played out in this area and it is generally what is referred as the Hunter Valley wine country. The majority of the Hunter Valley’s most prestigious vineyards are located on the southern valley and foothills of the Brokenback range (part of the Great Dividing Range). The topography of the Hunter includes mostly gently sloping hills with modest gradients. The one notable exception are the vineyards of Mount View just west of the town of Cessnock. The terrain of the Upper Hunter is noticeably flatter as the Goulburn River and other tributaries of the Hunter River dominate the areaDespite being the area’s namesake, the Hunter River itself is not the dominant feature of the region—falling behind the Brokenback Range for that distinction. The greater river system of the Hunter, which includes the Goulburn and important tributaries such as Giants Creek, do provide needed irrigation for areas such as the Upper Hunter than can be prone to drought condition. The origins of the river begin the Liverpool Range of the volcanic Barrington Tops and flows south and then east down to the Pacific Ocean at the seaport city of Newcastle. For most of its history, the Hunter Valley wine industry has been dominated by its close proximately to Sydney with its settlement and plantings in the 19th century fuelled by the trade network that linked the valley to the city. Even today, the steady supply of consumers from Sydney still drive much of the Hunter Valley wine industry and also provides for the tourism industry of the region

 

29^th October, Wednesday

Here we are, in the Hunter Valley. We left late because we couldn’t book into here until after 11 and we had only 150kms to do. We stopped at a wayside and had our sarmies and coffee.  The drive to Cessnock was not that exciting as it was mainly on the Pacific highway which is the main drag to Sydney so not much scenery, lots of trucks etc.  The road off from the highway to Cessnock takes you through lots of little old.  The shops in these places are all only one storey and all the town is on one street and the houses are all fibro and old, some neglected and some very loved.  Cessnock is a bit of the same but there are a few more streets with shops etc.  There are no such things as shopping centres really.  Coles and Target are on their own and then you get Woolies on their own etc. etc.  It’s awesome really because you do your groceries and then have to find the news agent for the lotto, which is down the road. The caravan park we are staying in is all divided up with vines, it is gorgeous.  There are 87 wineries with cellar doors in this region and we will see how we go with visting them all.  There are 32 restaurants here as well and it is going to be so hard to see how many we can go to in 3 days. We arrived here after lunch set the van up and then went to look at the town, just to buy the newspaper really.  When we got back which was still early our neighbours were sitting out and drinking wine and we started chatting and next thing the chairs went there and the wine bottles etc. They gave us some samples of wine that they had bought and by the time it got to cooking dinner I was having some problems, hahaha.  We haven’t been to a vineyard yet but I am feeling the effects. Tomorrow we visit the Hunter Valley big time and in the mean time I think that I will sleep well tonight.

30^th October, Thursday

A stunning morning here in the Hunter Valley. Off we went to do the wine and food trail and boy oh boy, what a trail it is.  We need a bigger caravan for all the wine we bought.  I told you all a porky when I said that there are 87 wineries here, there are in fact 175 wineries plus more than 32 restaurants.  I think that we had a good go today by trying to visit as many as we can. The wineries are all beautifully set out with their gardens and cellar sales and restaurants etc.  We had lunch at a vineyard called “Calais”.  They made us a picnic box and we bought a bottle of wine and sat under the trees, it was so lovely.  They had a restaurant there as well but we had Hugo with us and quite honestly I think that we got the better deal.  The Hunter valley is particularly known for its Shiraz and Semillon grapes.  The Semillon here is a straight Semillon and not mixed.  I have never had a straight Semillon before and it is beautiful.  Their Verdelho is not sweet and rather on the dry side and quite a light refreshing wine.  I’ve always known Verdelho as sweet and never drink it, the one here is lovely. The Hunter really is so beautiful and there is so much to see. You would need to stay a few weeks to be able to see about half of it. People here are so friendly and accomodating, always a smile and a story and nothing is too much effort. It’s really quite different when you travel inland to the smaller towns as people on the coast aren’t that friendly we have found. We only have a few days here but still have many other wine regions to visit and up until we see them I am stocked up.  We visited a boutique brewery and the young girl behind the counter (she was also a brewer) said to Ralph that the tasting was $3 per glass but he could have 2 half glasses for the same price. She started pouring and then started tasting herself and then started pouring Ralph beer from every single pump to taste and then said she wasn’t going to charge him.  I think he tasted about 6 different beers in the end, no charge.  She was really cute and I wondered if she did the tastings with everyone that came in because if she did she would be legless before lunch time.  Hugo is booked into Doggie daycare tomorrow so that we can visit the gardens and sight see a bit more.  It’s quite hot and it’s not fair to keep him in the car all the time as he gets a big agitated. We drop him off at 9.30 and pick him again at 3.00 and we think that he will be a lot happier in the cool of somewhere.  I think that when we get home we will have to have a party and you will all have to make up some recipes for cocktails for the liquors we are bringing back.  We passed a little cemetry (yes, I found another one) on the way, just a little one on the side of the road.  One little section is all one family (Mac Donald), the graves are old but there is one there that is a recent as 2012.  It’s not sectioned off from the road and it would seem that it is a family site that is still used today.  Just a little way off is another little section and these graves are old as some of the head stones can’t be read.  It’s quite strange to find a graveyard like this on the side of the road.

31^st October, Friday

Boy, oh Boy! It’s hot today. I am glad that we have put Hugo into a doggie day care as it’s air conditioned and he will be cool rather than sitting in the hot car all day.  He was actually quite glad to go.  We drove around some of the Hunter taking photos, visiting some wineries and visited a most amazing garden place.  I think that it would look beautiful at night as all the trees were strung with lights and there were Christmas thingies all over the place, all with lights.  Each section of the garden was themed.  There was an Italian garden, and oriental garden, Rose garden, Fairy tale garden, Formal garden etc. etc. and it was well worth walking around in the hot weather to see it. We found a lovely vineyard for lunch with the most amazing views.  The lunch was superb (the chef was French, so it was French cuisine).  The wine was awesome the wait staff, so friendly.  We visited one winery and they had a chalk board sign outside saying “We do not have WIFI, so drink wine and talk to each other”.  I asked one of the staff why the sign was there as we found it hilarious and so sadly true.  They said that they have so many young Asian tourists coming in and asking for their WIFI password.  We thought the sign was very clever and I forgot to take a picture.  We picked Hugo up from the daycare and he was very happy to see us.  Back to the van and now sitting in the air con.  I think it’s 37 degrees today. Tomorrow we head for “The Entrance” – greater part of Sydney and it’s only 80kms from here so not a big drive but will probably take us a while with the traffic as it’s the main road to Sydney.  Janet and Eric have booked into the caravan park we are staying in for 3 nights so we will catch up with them and we are spending a day and night with Nick and Jass and are catching up with some people that we met along the way, so we shall be busy there and it will be great to see everyone.