A town of vineyards and villas sounds more likely in the Italian countryside than in 19th century industrial Australia. But 170 years ago, Mayfield, in the coal port of Newcastle, was a fashionable garden suburb where day trippers visited the cellar door of a renowned vineyard.
When we speak of historic Mayfield we generally recall it's industrial heritage. We know of the BHP steelworks and the other industry that lined the riverfront. The remnants of the workshops, stacks and rail tracks are still there. As are the tightly packed workers cottages that sprung up between the wars and were slowly covered by a pall of coal dust until 21st century gentrification cleaned them up.
With that gritty image in mind, it's hard to imagine Mayfield as a desirable garden surburb of orchards and villas. There's few reminders for us of the days before the industry came. We can find the occasional building such as Winahra House at the corner of Highfield and Hanbury, and the Monastery in Woodstock St, but mostly the legacy of that long, lost past is only found in the street names. Bull, Williams, Crebert, Kerr, Dangar and even the suburb's eventual name "May'field, all names belonging to the areas pre-industrial pioneers.
Mayfield, The Garden Suburb
In the mid-1800s, for those who wanted to escape the pollution and noise of Newcastle city's coal mines and dockyards, Mayfield, 5km west was an idyllic location. The heavily wooded area sloped gently to the flat banks of the Hunter River. The soil was good, already supporting sprawling figs, tall ironbarks, tea trees and the waratahs that gave the greater area its name. The pretty outlook and accessibility to the city - soon both tram and train had stations in the area - made it the 'perfect' suburb for the region's merchants, professionals and growers.
Much of the land that stretches between what is now Tighes Hill, Sandgate and Wallsend was, in 1821, allocated to John Platt. Part of this land, an area of around 40 acres where Mayfield is now located, was locally known as "Platt's Folly" because of his ill-fated attempt to grow wheat on the land. Platt's wheat farm may have failed but for those that came after him, the soil superbly supported a variety of other agricultural ventures. Orchards of oranges and guavas flourished; the Chinese market gardeners supplied the growing city with its vegetables; and Crebert's vineyard made one of the colony's premier wines.
The Peter Crebert Story
Despite today's Hunter Valley being a world renowned wine growing region, the Newcastle inner city doesn't readily conjure up the same success stories. Yet, in the mid 1800s, Newcastle was very much a part of Australia's viniculture scene.
26 year old Peter Crebert was one of a number of German vignerons and vine dressers recruited to help kickstart the colony's own wine industry. Crebert and his wife, Maria, arrived in Newcastle in 1847 and was initially sent to work with landowner and industrialist, Dr James Mitchell who owned the Tweed Factory at Stockton. Unfortunately, only two years later, Crebert found himself unemployed after Mitchell's business burned down and work on the adjoining vineyard was abandoned.
In 1853, after stints working at various labouring jobs around the city, Crebert purchased a 5 acre block in "Platt's Folly" and decided to go it alone. It was a mammoth commitment. Peter needed to continue to work his day jobs as he and Maria cleared the land and planted vines. A couple of years later, he purchased another 5 acres, expanding his Mayfield vineyard. And, in 1859, Crebert successfully produced one of the first wines in Newcastle.
Crebert was now devoting all his time to the vineyard, but he was hardly able to manage on his own. He secured passage for his parents and siblings, who were also experienced in viniculture, to immigrate to Australia to help with his enterprise. The work was never easy. They may have avoided the worst of the frosts that plague the Hunter Valley vines, but they still had to build their own equipment, barrels, presses, cellars and deal with the difficult Australian climate. It was testament to their ingenuity and fortitude that their venture paid off.
Crebert arguably had one of the more successful vineyards in the colony. At their peak they were producing 3,000 gallons of wine a year and Crebert had no shortage of customers. He supplied his Riesling and Shiraz to the ships that visited Newcastle port as well as various establishments around town. Weekends brought Newcastle residents to Crebert's "Folly Garden's" where his cellar door was so popular he could turn over 100 bottles on a single Sunday afternoon.
Crebert's legacy is not only found in the vines. He is also credited with initiating what is now Mayfield East School. Wanting an education for his children, Crebert had a schoolroom and teacher set up on his land. The school drew in children from as far away as the Kooragang islands with students rowing across the water to attend.
Soap & Steel
As his vineyard was proving successful, Crebert decided to purchase a further 10 acres of land in Mayfield East. However, encroaching industry caused low yields and in 1885 he sold the unviable site to Charles Upfold for his Soap and Candle factory operations.
With its river frontage and proximity to coal and coast, Mayfield's march toward industry was inevitable. In 1896, Broken Hill Propriety Limited acquired land along the Mayfield foreshore to build its steelworks operations. Locals assumed it would be a small operation but in 1915, when the BHP opened, it was an extensive steelworks with multiple foundries that expanded not only along the riverfront but onto the islands, reclaiming land as it went. Other heavy industry soon followed with an array of smelters, factories, manufacturing workshops and chemical plants giving Mayfield a new economic direction.
Unable to thrive in the pollution, the orchards and gardens made way for housing. The garden suburb of villas and vineyards became a working class housing and industrial zone for the remainder of the 20th century.
By the time that the steelworks had arrived, Crebert had passed away. Over the next few years Crebert's land was subdivided and sold off. For many years, people living on the land that was once Crebert's found the vines still growing in their backyards. Today, the only mention of the vineyards that once filled much of the suburb are in the street signs: "Vine" and "Crebert".
Peter Crebert died in 1895, aged 75 and was buried in the Folly Cemetery, today part of the grounds of St Andrews, Church Street, Mayfield. The cemetery's tombstones were taken away for building materials years ago and are now scattered all over Newcastle. In 2014, a corner of Crebert's headstone was found near Lake Macquarie and presented to the Crebert family in time for the family reunion held at Mayfield East school.
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