This month I have decided to do a month of photos taken at Morpeth in the Hunter Valley. I want to show some of the places in our area. Morpeth is about a 1 hour drive from where I live.
Morpeth is a suburb of the city of Maitland in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the southern banks of the Hunter River at the border between the City of Maitland and Port Stephens. Morpeth takes its name from Morpeth, Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne, in England.
The town of Morpeth was initially created through the private actions of Lieutenant E C Close, who selected a property of 1,000 hectares and developed it as a river port from 1831-1841.
The river port grew steadily throughout the 1830s The construction of the Great Northern Railway in 1857, bypassing Morpeth, meant that Newcastle developed as the regional port.
Morpeth became less significant commercially, but still survived as a township with its own history and heritage.
The town today is a tourist destination due to its many historical buildings and river bank setting, and in the last few years it has developed as a crafts centre, popular with weekend visitors and tourists visiting the Hunter Valley.
This picture tells a bit of a story. The scene is what used to be the old Police Station and I think it is now a private house.
We were in Morpeth with our walking group and some of our members looked over the fence into the garden to see what was going on.
Here is the story.
Pic 1. The old Police Station
Pic 2. What are they looking at?
Pic 3. I think I will just move this over there.
Pic 4). It wasn't me.
Pic 5. I hope they don't put me in the lock up.
Today's main album photo
http://365project.org/onewing/365/2014-07-01
Thank you all so much I am so glad this little collage and story gave you a smile.
We were out with our walking group and this little dog was having a great time shaking hell out of his cushion. Don't know if anyone was home at the time, but with our group looking over the fence and taking pictures, if they were they probably stayed out of the way until we all moved on. ha ha.
Yes Rachel, Morpeth is a lovely place to visit. It is more a tourist attraction now though and has some wonderful old buildings. You can get a map from the information centre and it shows you all the buildings of interest around the town. Or you can just have a look in the many craft shops there, walk along the riverbank, or just have a wonderful meal at the many pubs and cafes. Well worth a visit if you are down this way again. I could get a job with the Tourist Information Bureau couldn't I. ha ha.