The Lower Hunter Valley is a wealth of natural beauty with a long history dating back to early convict pioneering days. A vastly diversified culture has grown from a humble beginning initially based on agriculture and forestry.

The towns of Morpeth, Maitland, Branxton and Singleton where established in the early 1820's to service the timber industry at first, due to the discovery of a large amount of cedar in the valley. This led to a influx of farmers to the lush fertile plains, many having gained land grants after military service or convict servitude. Many of the first roads and buildings were built with convict labour. Most of the first businesses in these towns were the inns, and the local currency was often rum. Bakers, blacksmiths and butchers, and the clergy were quick to follow.

Morpeth ( at first called Green Hills ) was established on the last navigable part of the Hunter River close to high ground to serve as a port for the early settlements. Steamers from Newcastle and Sydney would dock here loaded with a cargo of produce and passengers and return with cedar and grain. Morpeth was the main port for the Maitland area until the railway from Newcastle was completed. Morpeth remained for many years the main dock for the Patterson valley trade with its multi-level railway station. Morpeth may have been the site of Maitland had not it been restricted by the fact that it was closely surrounded by a private estate. In fact tolls would be charged to cross this estate in these early years. Morpeth boasted 6 inns at one time. Now only 2 pubs remain.

Maitland was sparsely settled several years before Morpeth on the fertile delta of Wallis Ck. The area on both sides of the creek was dominated by lush fertile plains and large stands of thick forest with predominantly ironbark and cedar. East Maitland was selected as the preferred site of the town of Maitland as it was less vulnerable to flooding. The first inn along with a toll bridge over Wallis Ck opened in the then official town of Maitland (East Maitland) in 1823. This inn also served as the first court house. More people preferred to live however in the low lying area of West Maitland where farming and building was easier and at that time was the navigable head of the river. Poor land management has contributed to silting of the river and therefore worse flooding to the extent that only Morpeth is now navigable by small craft. The government bowed to public pressure and the main settlement and population was established here on land more suitable for agricultural uses. While the town of East Maitland has a wide planned street format West Maitland has narrow twisting streets that followed the bullock tracks. This was the great folly of the government of the time. At one time there were more than 50 inns in the Maitland region. Maitland grew to have a larger population than Newcastle in this era. The town has suffered many devastating floods including the famous 1955 flood causing a severe loss of life and property. A huge amount of money was spent to protect Maitland from further large scale flooding with the building of levees, flood-ways and gates.

Wollombi was established in the 1830's as a major rest stop on the convict built Great North Road that first linked Sydney to Newcastle and Singleton. It was the largest town between Maitland and Windsor for many years with 6 inns and a large population of local wheat farmers. Rust destroyed the wheat crop in the 1860's and Wollombi dwindled into a small more diversified farming community. Wollombi has had a resurgence in recent years for its quiet rural lifestyle.

All these old towns have many beautifully restored sandstone buildings and artefacts from the colonial era. The old inns are gone however. Most inns of these days were built of timber and have since been demolished or replaced by stone and brick. The old inn at Millfield still stands as a museum.

Wheat, sheep and timber were the main industries in the valley until the discovery of the rich 'Greta' coal seam in the late 1850's at Greta and the birth of the Coalfields. The towns of Heddon Greta, Kurri Kurri, Weston, Abermain and many others were established and often named after the many underground mines, the last of which closed in 2003, but up until the 1960's produced a phenomenal output of fine coal and established Newcastle as a major steel making city and port . The owners and workers of the early mines were mainly of Scottish or English decent hence the almost exclusively British named towns that make up the Lower Hunter.

Cessnock was an established rural village before the 'coal rush'. It was a small settlement around a inn established in 1856 at the present site of the Cessnock Hotel where the Maitland branch of the Great North Road met Black Ck. Just 5kms north is Nulkaba which was the first town in the coalfields region and also the origin of the wine growing industry. The first vineyard in Cessnock was established at Nulkaba in 1866.

The Coalfields towns have some of the finest hotels of the Lower Hunter. They are unique in a way, the pub is often the largest and most architecturally well designed building in the town. The first major building wasn't the church, it was the pub and they spent a lot of time and money on them and in them.