Newcastle

Industrial city and port in New South Wales, Australia, on the Hunter River, 157 km/98 mi north of Sydney; population (2001) 280,000. Newcastle is the second-largest city in the state after Sydney, and is dependent mainly on coalmining and alumina production. Other industries include shipbuilding and the manufacture of electronic equipment, textiles, chemicals, fertilizers, and wine products. Newcastle has a university (1965).

Newcastle's harbour, Port Hunter, is the second port of New South Wales and the seventh port of Australia in the volume of its shipping trade. Exports include coal, iron, wheat, wool, and frozen meat. Australia's biggest earthquake struck here in 1989.

Newcastle was founded as a penal settlement in 1804. Coal was discovered in the nearby Hunter Valley in 1796, and the city developed as the centre for the processing and export of coal and other minerals (copper, lead, and zinc). It is now the seventh- largest city in Australia. Newcastle has two coal loading ports, which have a total combined capacity of 66 million tonnes of trade each year.

Newcastle

Seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland; population (2001) 7,900. Situated beneath the slopes of Slieve Donard (in the Mourne Mountains), Newcastle faces the sandy beaches of Dundrum Bay. The town is a centre for golf: the Royal County Down Club is located here.

Tollymore forest park, 3 km/2 mi to the north, includes a natural-history museum and Tollymore Mountain Centre; also nearby is Castlewellan forest park with fine arboreta. At Carncavill, 5 km/3 mi north of Newcastle, is a circular graveyard called Ráth Murbhuilg which contains the ruins of an ancient monastery founded by Bishop Domhaughard, including a church and some remains of a round tower.

Newcastle

Town in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa, near the Drakensberg Mountains, 250 km/155 mi northwest of Durban; population (district, 1991) 53,600. Coal and iron ore are mined locally. There is also a medium-sized diamond-polishing plant located here.

The town is the site of one of the state-owned steel corporation ISCOR's six major iron- and steel-processing plants. Newcastle has produced pig-iron since 1920.

Newcastle

Town and seat of Northumberland County, in northeastern New Brunswick; population (1991) 5,700. Newcastle stands on the Miramichi River estuary, 120 km/75 mi north-northwest of Moncton.

A port with coastal trade, the town ships lumber and iron ore, and has shipyards, creosote manufacturing facilities, and pulp mills. It was the boyhood home of British financier and press baron Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, who took his title from Beaver Brook, a small town on the railway north of Newcastle.

Newcastle

Town in Durham Regional Municipality, southeastern Ontario; population (1991) 49,500. Situated on Lake Ontario, immediately northeast of Oshawa and 61 km/38 mi east-northeast of Toronto, Newcastle was created in 1974 and has experienced rapid growth. In the period 1986–91 alone, its population increased by 45%.

When it was made a town, Newcastle took in a number of townships and villages dating from the early 19th century. Bowmanville, on the lake, is a port with an industrial history, having made toys, car parts, rubber goods, flour, and many other products; it is also a resort and dormitory town. Darlington, just west of Bowmanville, is the site of a nuclear power station with four reactors that has been in operation since 1992. Apple growing, dairy farming, and other forms of agriculture remain important to the economy of the area. Mosport, 16 km/10 mi north of Bowmanville, has since 1961 been the site of one of Canada's main motor-racing circuits.