They Were Here: The People of Newcastle

Contents:
• Introduction to the Rate Books
• Newcastle Council Rate Book for 1885
• Hunter District Water Board Rate Book for 1892
• Hunter District Water Board Rate Book for 1898-1900

Local Studies at the Newcastle Region Library has a large collection of old Newcastle Municipal Council and Hunter District Water Board rate books on film, and it is this resource that has been used to create the databases found in this publication. At the time these rate books were compiled, the Newcastle Council administered an area much smaller than today, operating within a space bordered by the neighbouring villages of Merewether, Hamilton, Stockton, Carrington and Wickham.
Each database has the entries in the same order as in the original rate book so that you have a good chance of seeing who the neighbours were of your person of interest. Being fully searchable PDF files means that any name is easy to find, which is particularly useful if the person owns many properties in the area.
By searching the databases you can find who was living where, who owned which property and the businesses that were operating at the time. Often it is even possible to find that an entry will give the material of which a building is constructed and from the 1885 Council book, even the ‘assessed annual value’ in pounds.