Linwood is a peaceful piece of Honeysuckle showcasing the latest in architectural excellence, with innovative terrace-house design fitting into the waterfront village and forming a community around landscaped foreshore parkland and a casual café. Within walking distance of the CBD, it’s an area from which residents and visitors alike can enjoy the convenience of inner-city living combined with open space and views of Throsby Creek.

Back in Time

When European settlement of the Hunter Valley began in 1801 the Linwood and Carrington precincts were an Aboriginal hunting and camping site and it remained so for several decades. In the 1840s the first settlers moved into the Throsby Creek area to establish small farms, mainly for the fattening of cattle and sheep destined for Newcastle’s butcheries. Slaughterhouses, a meat canning factory and soap and candle manufacturing followed to become the precinct’s main employer in the 1850s and 1860s.

The opening of the Great Northern Railway in 1857 stimulated economic development and as the population of Newcastle grew, the Wickham and Maryville area became residentially attractive, the first subdivision into household lots occurring in 1868. Within two decades it had become Newcastle’s most populous suburb with a variety of housing ranging from gentlemen’s villas to cottages on narrow frontages.

After the opening of the BHP Steelworks at Port Waratah in 1915, Wickham and Maryville began to attract industrial facilities such as oil depots and wool stores but until 1947 it still housed about 12,000 people. However, as light industry developed and the Newcastle City Council responded by zoning Wickham industrial, people began to move out of the suburb and by 1976 the population had dropped to 6,500.

To some extent this trend was arrested but not reversed and when the Industrial Highway was opened in 1971, it increased the appeal of Wickham to industry. The development of the Linwood Precinct as residential areas and foreshore parkland will help restore it to its 19th Century status as one of the city’s premier housing areas.

Source: summary from Honeysuckle Historical study by Dr J W Turner, 1994.