23Working in Hamilton
Air conditioning in Hamilton 2303
Hamilton fits more than 4,600 people into 1.4 square kilometres, so the outdoor unit here is often a metre or two from a neighbour's window, and where it goes matters as much as which brand it is.
Hamilton is about 4 km from the Newcastle city centre and is named after Edward Terrick Hamilton, who governed the board of the Australian Agricultural Company from 1857 to 1898. It began as a coal township called Pittown, Borehole or Happy Flat, around a shaft finished in 1849 near today's Beaumont Street. From 1947 close to 150 families from Lettopalena in Abruzzo settled in the area, and Beaumont Street became the heart of Newcastle's Italian community. The earthquake of 28 December 1989 hit Beaumont Street among the hardest, bringing down facades and awnings. In 2019 the state approved a heritage conservation area covering four blocks between Donald and Tudor Streets, typical of late Victorian and Federation Newcastle: small lots, one or two storeys. The Bureau's old Maryville station, a short way north, averaged 27.6°C on January afternoons from 1969 to 1993.