Major historic service centre in the Hunter Valley. Maitland has always been the principal town of the Hunter Valley (although Newcastle would dispute this claim) and consequently it has many historic buildings as well as a local brickworks, light industry, tourism and an open-cut mine.

River levels at Maitland have fallen below the minor flood level (5.9 metres). No further flooding is expected along the Wollombi Brook and the Hunter River.

Flood – Hunter Valley The damage was widespread across the Hunter Valley, with more than 40,000 people evacuated from more than 40 towns. Fifteen thousand residents were evacuated from the Singleton and Maitland regions, 5200 homes were flooded and 58 homes were destroyed or washed away.

State Emergency Service (SES) records released by Floodsafe Hunter, state that the total flood volume for the entire Hunter River system was 2.1 million megalitres, which is enough water to fill Sydney Harbour over four times. It destroyed many homes as water inundated the city and claimed several lives.

4,583 ft
The Hunter River descends 1,397 m (4,583 ft) over its 468 km (291 mi) course from the high upper reaches, through the Hunter Valley, and out to sea.

The impacts in the Hunter Valley were severe with the loss of 14 lives, 5200 homes flooded (130 of which were destroyed or had to be demolished), and severe damage to farmland, streets, bridges and railways. The greatest impacts occurred in Maitland, Singleton and Muswellbrook.

The Hunter River at Raymond Terrace has broken its banks and is causing minor to moderate flooding. The river peaked at 2.69 metres around 4am on Sunday, and is now at 2.58 metres and falling.

six days
The 1955 flood, which began on February 23 and lasted nearly six days, killed 14 people and inundated more than 6,600 homes across the Hunter Valley.

Causes. The flooding was caused by the rains from two hurricanes, Hurricane Connie and Hurricane Diane. On August 11, Hurricane Connie swept through the East Coast—missing Connecticut, but bringing about 4 to 6 inches of rainfall to the state on August 13.

The Hunter River is a remote tributary of Lake Hawea that offers very good fishing in a remote and beautiful setting for a good population of rainbow trout and some large brown trout.

Maitland has been named as one of Australia’s top 12 affordable regional areas in a nationwide report. The report was based on key criteria including: affordability, price growth, investment opportunity, planned infrastructure projects and unemployment rate.