*The old Newcastle Promenade Fountain in 2026*

Walk along Newcastle Beach and you might notice something unusual about the old retaining wall surrounding the historic fountain.

Much of the wall is built from a distinctive pink, striped metamorphic rock known as gneiss.

According to geologists, this rock closely matches gneiss found around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

So how did South American stone end up in Newcastle?

Location:

Early 20th Century Trade

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Newcastle was one of the world’s busiest coal ports. Ships regularly arrived from overseas with little or no cargo, intending to load coal for the return journey.

To remain stable while travelling empty, these vessels carried ballast: heavy material such as stone, sand or timber placed in the bottom of the ship.

Before coal could be loaded, the ballast had to be removed.

As a result, Newcastle accumulated enormous quantities of foreign stone discharged from ships arriving from ports around the world. Contemporary reports describe ballast being dumped around the harbour, with some areas eventually built over these deposits.

Rather than letting it go to waste, some of this imported stone was reused in local construction projects.

Building the Ocean Promenade

One of those projects was Newcastle’s new Ocean Promenade Fountain, completed in 1909.

A newspaper report published later that year praised the new promenade and specifically noted that ballast stone had been used during its construction. While the article does not identify the ships involved or the origin of the stone, it supports the broader history of imported ballast being repurposed for public works.

Today, sections of that original promenade survive, including the retaining wall surrounding the fountain at Newcastle Beach.

Snowball, R. Newcastle Beach and promenade, Newcastle, NSW, 12 February 1912. University of Newcastle Special Collections and Archives.

A missing plaque

For many years there has been an obvious rectangular gap in the wall, currently home to a colourful sign. However, the sandstone frame suggests that a commemorative plaque had once been mounted there.

To find out what it contained, I contacted the University of Newcastle Special Collections and Archives, which holds the remarkable photographic collection of Newcastle photographer Ralph Snowball.

Among the collection is a high resolution photograph taken on 12 February 1912. When enlarged, the missing plaque becomes clearly visible.

It reads:

Ocean Promenade 1909
John C. Reid, Mayor
Louis S. Blackwell, City Engineer

The photograph provides valuable confirmation of when the wall formed part of the completed promenade and identifies the key civic figures responsible for the project.

The question remains; is the original plaque hiding beneath this modern sign?

Can we identify the ship?

At present, there is no surviving evidence linking the stone to a particular vessel.

Without Louis S. Blackwell’s engineering plans, council construction records or documentation recording the source of the ballast used, identifying the exact shipment would be extremely difficult.

The stone was almost certainly discharged in Newcastle before the promenade’s completion in 1909, but whether it arrived on one ship or many remains unknown.

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References

Newcastle as a Holiday Resort. (1909, October 19). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), p. 9.
Stone Mention. (1909). The Daily Telegraph. (Ocean Promenade construction report.)
Weekly Times. (1905, August 5). Yarra Wharf Scenes.
University of Newcastle Special Collections and Archives. Ralph Snowball Collection:
- Newcastle Beach Ocean Promenade, 8 January 1910.
- Newcastle Beach Ocean Promenade, 12 February 1912.
- Additional Ocean Promenade photographs, 1912.
- Newcastle Beach promenade and fountain photographs.
- Newcastle Beach photographs, 1960s.

Thank you to Ross K. for this topic suggestion.

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