Hunter River Railway Company

When the company faced financial difficulties during construction, it was bought by the Government of New South Wales and the line subsequently opened in 1857.

The line devised by the company is the oldest section of what became the Great Northern Railway from Sydney to Wallangarra on the Queensland border.

On 20 April 1853, a public meeting was held at the Royal Hotel in Sydney to discuss the creation of a company for the development of a railway between Newcastle and Maitland.

[2] Wentworth gave a speech about the project and its potential, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported:Intimately acquainted with the district and its resources, the honourable and learned member described, in his usual lucid manner, the favourable results of the careful surveys which had been made; the trifling nature of the engineering difficulties, even if the line were afterwards extended to Scone, to the North, and Sydney to the South; and last, but not least, he reminded the meeting of the well-known fact that the county of Durham, and the Hunter River district generally, were the most productive localities in the colony.

[3] A Mr Lundie who had surveyed the route ten years prior devised plans which were purchased and used by the company.

[2][3] The ex-Southampton ship Ellenborough arrived on 31 October 1853 with a hundred labourers contracted by the railway, as well as construction materials and tools.

[8] The Lord George Bentinck arrived on 9 March 1855 with 119 immigrant men, women and children, and 650 tons of iron for the company.

[12][13] The railway workers onboard had been promised a good job paying a daily wage of six shillings and sixpence.