FANCY a trip into the Hunter this weekend? If so, you might consider visiting Morpeth, the old river town a few kilometres out of Maitland.
Sitting on an elbow in the Hunter River, the historic village is full of charm and character that truly sets it apart from its neighbours. But it also holds a few secrets, even to this day, if you look hard enough.
Once a private township and busy river port serving Maitland, it is steeped in Australian colonial history. But most visitors know it best these days for its arts and craft stores, boutique shops in cobblestone alleyways, flagstone footpaths, cafes, teashops and two country-style pubs with wide verandas.
From the 1820s, the Hunter River here was the limit of ship navigation, first bringing timber-getters to plunder now forgotten rainforests, then settlers, farmers and merchants to open up the valley to Europeans, making the district a major agricultural hub. It was also a boisterous town, with bullock teams crowding the streets. At its peak (in 1867) it had 11 hotels (although some claim 18 inns and public houses) for thirsty patrons.
Known originally by its Aboriginal name of 'Illulaung', today's site of Morpeth was part of a land grant made to Lieutenant Edward Charles Close in 1821. The former soldier and artist built the distinctive St James Anglican Church, in Tank Street, in 1837 to thank God for sparing his life in the Napoleonic wars. Close also built a large sandstone mansion called 'Closebourne', which became the residence of the first Anglican Bishop of Newcastle, William Tyrrell, then his successors until 1912.
Within a decade, Close's frontier town had evolved into one of the most important river ports in NSW, far surpassing its rival Newcastle probably until the 1890s.
Today, Morpeth is also often remembered as the place where many famous Australian companies got their start. Here, names such as Arnott's, Brambles and Caleb Soul tip off the tongue. Arnott's is of national biscuit fame, and the famous bakehouse, traced back to the early 1860s, is signposted along Swan Street, the main street. Morpeth is also where major transport company Brambles began, along with Caleb Soul's Soul Pattinson pharmacy chain.
Weekender, though, recently visited Morpeth for a different reason. It was to check out the village's newest tourist attraction. To celebrate Morpeth's recent bicentenary, stage one of Maitland City Council's ambitious Morpeth to Walka Waterworks shared path quietly opened last month.
This walkway, from Morpeth's historic timber bridge up to Robert Street, runs parallel with the Hunter River on the old, now almost forgotten, railway corridor to East Maitland, hidden below houses on Swan Street. The path at present ends at the former Robert Street railway station.
Believe it or not, five railway stations eventually served Morpeth township. The now defunct rail line survived for 89 years, from 1864 to August 1953.
But no story about Morpeth is complete without mention of the town's rare 1898 bridge spanning the Hunter River to link East Maitland with Phoenix Park, Hinton and Wallalong. It's the oldest of three remaining overhead braced timber truss bridges still in service in NSW.
Today's historic picture of the bridge, from the 1900s, shows how the low-lying farmland at Phoenix Park, directly opposite Morpeth, has often become an inland sea over the past 200 years.
Popular folklore has it that the vast floodplain has had at least 12 major floods since 1820, but that's not the full story. According to Hunter flood historian the late Peter Bogan, between June 1949 and February 1955 alone, Phoenix Park farms were covered by flood waters a staggering 31 times.
This might explain why some Morpeth secrets could lie buried forever. Opposite the township, somewhere, lies a remarkable relic from colonial times, possibly now under eight metres of floodplain silt.
It's the submerged hulk of the converted storeship St Michael, circa 1818, which may resemble a French frigate and which sank in the river in 1841 with its actual location a puzzle ever since. Once sporting eight guns and a crew of 30, the 77ft long vessel was used in the South Seas trade. In 1826, however, it was used to transport convicts into the Hunter Valley, then used as a depot ship for convict cedar cutters.
Heather Berry, from the Morpeth Heritage Conservation Group, and other volunteers plus a Sydney marine archaeologist, conducted a sonar sweep of the riverbed for the lost ship in 2019 without success.
Earlier, in 2003, ship hunter and author Chris Robson, believed the intact hull of the St Michael might be buried inland, smothered by 182 years of flood debris.
Speaking of water, let's turn our attention to a large timber building, possibly 40 metres long, tucked away in Robert Street, Morpeth. Long since closed and empty, it has seen much better days.It was once the home of the Morpeth Trading Post, an arts and crafts sort of place.
Campbell's Antique Centre a few blocks away is a more familiar landmark today. It has survived and prospered, unlike its former rival.
The old Trading Post was actually in the shell of J.G. White's joinery factory, opened in 1845 and built from local rainforest timber. The business was operated by three generations of the White family until 1968 when it was claimed to be the oldest surviving joinery works in Australia.
In its heyday, the factory made everything from fine furniture, including cedar church pews, to beds, broom handles and coffins. The White family were also the local undertakers with three horse-drawn hearses. Mr J.G. White has been described as one of Morpeth's quiet achievers.
But the site has another claim to fame. Inside is a well, believed sunk in 1818, which is claimed to have provided the original water supply to Morpeth. Dug through solid rock and fed by a natural spring, the well was 79ft deep. The furniture factory used horses on treadmills to run its machinery until the 1840s, when it converted to steam operation. The boilers drew water from the well, which was then filled with sand during the 1970s, but re-excavated when the building was renovated in 1988.
Then owner, Chris Richards, told The Herald that the brick-lined well, which was about 4.5 metres across and "a real gem", was built without mortar. A steam pump once drove a central belt shaft to operate the wood-turning machinery.
The cedar staircase at the Belltrees property, near Scone, was built at the factory, as was furniture for the fabled John Eales, of Duckenfield.
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