Broadmeadow

Famously known as “Nineways”

It was, well, still is, the intersection of nine streets. Maybe a world record? Technically, you’ll find ten streets, looking at a map.

A roundabout handled this complexity without fuss and, as still they do in so many great cities, motorists and pedestrians wove their patient paths around this magic circle. Then, sadly, and according to the wisdom of an era, someone decided to flatten Newcastle’s very own “Piccadilly Circus” and apply the strictures and mind-numbing monotony of motoring’s great curse (and occasional saviour): traffic lights.

Broadmeadow, thus doomed, remains to this day a mere intersection.

Image ~ NSW State Library

Above: Broadmeadow, NSW, 1953 showing roundabout – yes, with people enjoying the view from the middle .. or maybe road workers surveying their havoc. Top right is the fabulous Century Theatre whose awning fell off in the 1989 earthquake, so the wreckers pounced. In the distance is a Coke & Coal Co’s gasometer, and a skyfull of industrial particulates

The place is still getting cleaned up (2016) and so becomes less interesting, and more like any everywhere else.

Here’s some ambiance from a decade ago.

Note, Broadmeadow’s rail bridge underpass here and Gully Line watercourse bridge here have their own articles.