Blackbutt reserve

How a century of community determination turned a working colliery into Newcastle’s most beloved bushland reserve

From Coalfield to Bushland Sanctuary

Tucked just six kilometres from Newcastle’s city centre, the beautiful Blackbutt Reserve today hosts 182 hectares of living bushland, a seemingly improbable survivor given its industrial past, plans for a major highway through it, and attempts at residential subdivision.

The Mining Year

In 1824, representatives of the Australian Agricultural Company stumbled across surface coal on the northern ridge of what is now Blackbutt Reserve. The first underground mine, known as ‘B’ pit, was sunk the following year. The Scottish-Australian Mining Company (SAM Co) acquired the land in 1850 and commenced formal mining operations in 1863, working two mines across the Blackbutt valleys. In 1899, the site passed to Borehill Colliery, which continued extracting coal using pick-and-shovel methods until machinery was introduced in 1966. The pit finally closed in 1985.

The most conspicuous geological formation is the Charlestown Conglomerate, which forms the massive cliff face beneath the New Lambton Heights Lookout. Beneath it lie shales, sandstones and coal seams of the Kahibah, Kotara, Shepherds Hill and Bar Beach Formations. Along Carnley Avenue, roadside cuts expose the Montrose, Wave Hill and Victoria Tunnel seams, the last of which was the main working seam of Borehill Colliery.

The Fight for Preservation

As Newcastle expanded westward in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kotara area was subdivided by the NSW Lands Department into large rural lots. The Depression made them difficult to sell. In the mid-1920s, the NSW RSL purchased 80 acres intending to establish market gardens for returned soldiers, but the project failed and the land was eventually sold to Lambton Municipal Council. By 1937, the council had acquired two further adjoining lots, bringing the holding to 240 acres.

The 1938 Municipal Amalgamation Act merged eleven local councils into Greater Newcastle City Council, which took over responsibility for the reserve. What followed were decades of competing proposals: in the 1940s, a name change to ‘King George Fifth Park’; in the 1950s, a zoo to rival Sydney’s Taronga; in the 1960s, botanical gardens; in the 1970s, a private high school; and most alarmingly, a motorway that would have cut the reserve in half, with its valleys used as landfill.

At every turn, the reserve was saved by community action. The crucial early intervention came in 1934, when Joe Richley, president of the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement, persuaded New Lambton Council to purchase six hectares of bushland. In 1956, a further 124 hectares were acquired from SAM Co; but plans to subdivide it for 500 homes were defeated. The highway proposal was similarly blocked through community campaigning. Newcastle’s then-Lord Mayor, Joy Cummings, was also a tireless advocate for the reserve’s preservation.

Blackbutt Reserve Today

When Borehill Colliery’s pit closed in 1979, the former mine site became the basis for what is now Richley Reserve. In 1993, it was officially renovated and opened to the public by Lord Mayor Joy Cummings, and named in honour of Joe Richley’s lifelong contribution to the area.

Restoration work began in earnest in 1963 by the local community and members of the APEX Club of Port Stephens, including one of the region’s environmental warriors, Doug Lithgow, of the Northern Parks and Playgrounds Movement, now a Freeman of the City of Newcastle. The removal of decades of weed invasion, including dense lantana, gradually transformed the reserve into the biodiverse park it is today.

Comprising five deep valleys and four ridges, Blackbutt Reserve is owned by the citizens of Newcastle, and its walking tracks traverse ecosystems ranging from open eucalypt forest to restored subtropical rainforest sheltering threatened species including the grey-headed flying fox and the powerful owl.

This much-loved green heart of Newcastle now attracts more than 150,000 visitors a year. Whether you come for the wildlife exhibits which feature koalas, wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, emus, and various reptiles, the birds including Black Cockatoos and King Parrots, the stunning walking trails, a family barbecue, or simply a quiet hour under the trees, the reserve rewards a visit in any season. A new café and function centre are welcome recent additions to what was already one of the Hunter’s most popular free destinations.

For more information:  visitnewcastle.com.au/see-do/things-to-do/blackbutt-reserve