Hunter Valley Humdrummery
I've had a long and varied history of ambivalent feelings to the town of Cessnock since I was 7 years old, and I don't expect that attitude to change in the short or long run. It's not that Cessnock and Cessnockians in general have done anything to earn my ennui (or even distaste), and I'm sure they would be unhappy with me for offering any criticisms (justified or not) of their town. Yet since the day when the Cessnock Goannas defeated the Maitland Pumpkin Pickers in the 1972 Hunter Valley rigby league grand final me Cessnock and I really just don't get along that well.
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Now Cessnock is not a pretty town, and I guess it's unfair to blame the local architecture for the lingering antipathy I harbour against the place. Yet when it is compared with near Hunter neighbours such as Singleton, Scone or even 'big brother' Maitland the influence of the coal mining history of Cessnock has given (to my mind) the town a rather sombre, depressed and unwelcoming feel. Small homes with narrow, badly maintained streets give you plenty of encouragement to keep driving if your passing through. The main street (Vincent Street) looks sadly dated and down at heel, and the shopping complexes facing Wollombi Road also have an air of quiet desperation about them.
But these comments need to be tempered with the reflection that Cessnock has had it far tougher over the years than the likes of Singleton (which had farming and the army to help out economically). The Hunter Valley wineries which dot the surrounding areas of Cessnock no doubt provide a second income stream to the town, but Cessnock was shaped for many a year by the demands of men mining coal first. This can be seen up the Branxton Road with the memorial to the Rothbury mine riot of 1929.
This actually provides a half-decent segue for my next issue with Cessnock; the road between there and New England Highway. For years I have diverted off the more developed route that takes you past Maitland and over the Hunter River near Hexham, instead travelling through townships such as Freeman's Waterhole, Mulbring, Kearsley and Abedare to the south of Cessnock, and Nulkaba and Rothbury to the north heading towards Branxton. For I don't know how many times I've travelled this stretch and it would be fair to say it has been a badly maintained, horridly uninteresting and rather unattractive diversion. I do have one exception in that the Kearsley pub looks like a stand out of rural drinking holes, but when you're on the road heading north or south through Cessnock be prepared for a fairly unrewarding experience. And by the way, the same cavalier approach to road maintenance exists on the Cessnock-Bellbird-Wollombi road to the west.
If this all sounds like a rant against one town I have to temper it with a high commendation to one tourist feature of Cessnock. The Potters Hotel and Brewery has a reasonable gastropub feel to its bistro and a delightful Kolsch style beer made on site which raised a few smiles for me on a couple of instances. It's a pleasant dining and drinking experience and I would happily stop there again.
As for the Hunter Valley wineries which dot the landscape around Cessnock I can't comment on them either as a whole or individually because I've never taken the opportunity of spending more than a passing sip or two in their vineyards, bodegas and tasting sheds. The local tourism info centre (north of Nulkaba) has a plethora of material about the Cessnock area and its wines and it's actually a decent resource for the traveller. However it's not an ends to the journey itself.
Finally a word about the fridge magnet art available at Cessnock. As you might assume wine takes a central role in this, the most kitschy of traveller's accoutrement:
I'd rather have picked up one of those stylish drawing/impressionistic caricatures of Cessnock's cityscape but sad to say I don't think such a vision exists. It does the job however, which perhaps can be a fitting coda for cessnock in itself. Travelling through the Hunter Valley? Cessnock: it does the job.
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