SINGLETON, the oldest town of the Hunter River valley, in central eastern New South Wales, Australia, socially and indus trially one of the most interesting and important areas in the southern hemisphere. In its many-sided significance—in respect of its site in the river valley liable to floods, the presence of coal and possibly of petroleum in its neighbourhood, grazing and timber-cutting, mixed agriculture, fruit and vine-growing, co-opera tive dairying and buttermaking, cattle-marketing—it typifies the historical and economic growth of the area in which it occupies a central and linking position. From the coast round about New castle the Hunter valley stretches north-west as a low narrow trough between the northern and southern plateaux for about 120 miles to a saddle near Cassilis (alt. 1,500 ft.) which barely divides its drainage from that of the western rivers (Talbragar-Mac quarie). It falls into two main sections (i.) the upper Hunter Goulburn drainage basin, an irregular hill-and-valley country (7,00o sq. miles; ay. elevation 1,000 ft.) with streams descending chiefly from the northern heights, and divided by a constriction (Branxton Gap, 10 miles wide, just below Singleton) from (ii.) the lower, partly deltaic and estuarine valley. Tributaries (Pater son and Williams Rivers) open up important valleys in the north east and help to extend the lowland northwards from Newcastle. The basalt capping of the north-west and north-east plateaux have supplied rich alluvials to the river floors but the southern sandstone scarps are poor in water and generally infertile. Relief, and the position upon the transition zone between summer and winter rains, help to give the upper basin a drier climate (2 2-3o in.) with a greater range of temperature (Cassilis: ay. ann. temp. 72°-47.5° F ; mean daily range, 24.4° F ; ay. ann. rainfall 21.3 in.), and to the lower basin more humid and equable conditions (New castle : F; ; 42 in.). In general, also, much more rain falls on the northern slopes than on the southern. In the upper basin the rougher margins supply timber and grazing grounds, and, though good soil abounds, erratic rainfall encourages cattle, sheep and horse rearing (e.g., Scone district) and saw-mills are widely distributed. Nearer the centre, the valleys—which would admit of irrigation—are being invaded by mixed farming, and large holdings are decreasing in number. At Aberdeen is a large meat (mutton, beef, rabbit) freezing works and at Denman a large butter factory serves the growing dairying industry. Here also the physical conditions are favourable for growing cotton. The middle Hunter valley, formerly and still to some extent in pastoral occupation, was devoted to wheat-growing, arable mixed-farming and fruit-growing (citrus and stone fruits, vines), but latterly in creasingly to dairying. Thus around Singleton large estates, and also timber-cutting, persist, but farming, fruit-growing, and, most recently, dairying have increased and Singleton is a notable butter making centre. Fruit is extensively grown in the Paterson and Williams valleys but the wine-making industry, once important, has declined. The disappearance of wheat as a grain crop has been largely due to the humidity of the climate. From and through the
Hunter valley come the horses, cattle, meat (cf. the famous Mait land cattle-market), and also the agricultural and dairy produce of the valley itself and of the western slopes (Liverpool Ranges). But whereas the markets were formerly chiefly in Sydney or over seas, ever larger proportions have been absorbed by the growing coal-mining and industrial population at hand. All three measures of the State's main coal deposit crop out in the Hunter valley. The most important seams are those of the Newcastle field (New castle or Upper Measures), of the Maitland field—mainly Lower (Greta) seams—and those of Muswellbrook (Upper and Lower). The known reserves within the area are estimated at 12,000, 000,000 tons, the total possible reserves at 72,000,000,000 tons (Newcastle field: 270,000,000 tons available ; S. Maitland field: 1,350,000,000 tons; Muswellbrook: 96,000,00o tons of Lower, be sides large reserves of Upper Series coals). Comparative ease of working and access to the sea have made this the chief coal-export ing area of Australia, but from various causes, social as well as economic, the coal industry is severely depressed, the annual out put—normally I 0,000,000 tons—has greatly declined, and the export trade has at present almost ceased. Output, 1926: northern field : 7,258,000 tons (L6,835,000) ; cf. southern field (see BULL', PORT KEMBLA) : 2,025,000 tons (L1,661,000) ; western field (see LITHGOW) : 1,604,00o tons (L941,000). The rise of manufacturing industry—notably that of the steel industry with its associated chemical and metallurgical industries—tends to place mining in the second rank and to substitute an industrial for a mining popu lation, though a recent (1929) project for the large-scale (L3,000, 000 capital) distillation of the Ellalong (Cessnock; see MAIT LAND) coal reserves holds out promise for the future of the coal, as well as of other industrial developments. Pop. (1933) 3,669.
Newcastle, with its satellites, is the chief industrial area and also the chief port of the valley, but the S. Maitland field (W. Maitland-Cessnock) is now the chief coal-producing area, while Muswellbrook (pop. 3,258), a farming centre in the upper Hunter valley, has a rising coal production. A branching system of rail way lines and of roads serves the valley; the river, though navi gable to Morpeth (35 miles from the sea), is little used because of its erratic flow. Newcastle provides a not altogether satisfactory harbour and Port Stephens has been suggested as a more desirable outlet. Interesting also is the suggestion for linking the valley by rail with the western system over the Cassilis gap. Population has grown rapidly and now amounts, in the whole valley, to c. 225,000. It is mainly an urban population, the Newcastle-Cessnock-Mait land agglomerations alone including some 150,000. Some of the most difficult problems of Australian economic and political life have been introduced during the evolution of this valley which typifies the present stage of growth of the Commonwealth. (See F. R. E. Mauldon : A Study in Social Economics, The Hunter River Valley, 1927.) (See also NEWCASTLE, MAITLAND.)