Morpeth

Morpeth is a suburb of the city of Maitland in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia.

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 Council LGAs. The major population centre, where almost all residents of the suburb reside, is the historical town of Morpeth which takes its name from Morpeth, Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne, in England.

The Traditional Owners and Custodians of the Maitland area are the Wonnarua people. The town of Morpeth was initially created through the private actions of Edward Charles Close, who selected a property of 1,000 hectares and developed it as a river port from 1831-1841. The lieutenant built his house, known as Closebourne, on the property. A two-storey Georgian home made of sandstone, the house became an episcopal residence from 1848-1912, which eventually became the nucleus of St John's Theological College on Morpeth Road.

The river port grew steadily throughout the 1830s. St James's Church, located on Tank Street, was built from 1837 to 1840 and was partly designed by John Horbury Hunt is now a Local Government Heritage . A major merchant at this time was James Taylor, who built a bond store circa 1850 near the bridge that is now heritage-listed. Morpeth Court House was built circa 1861 in a Greek Revival style and a local police station followed in 1879. 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.

Today, the town is a popular tourist destination due to its many historical buildings and river bank setting.