23Working in Lambton
Air conditioning in Lambton 2299
Lambton was the first council area around Newcastle to switch on electric lights, in 1890, and an old house here may have been rewired since, which is worth knowing the day a new unit goes in.
Lambton is about 8 km west of the Newcastle city centre and takes its name from the Lambton Colliery, which the Scottish Australian Mining Company opened in December 1863. The pit closed in 1936, and its main entrance is now Lewis Oval and the houses around it. Lambton became a municipality on 24 June 1871 and in 1890 was the first in the district to turn on electric lights. Lambton Park, about 14 hectares in the middle of the suburb, was dedicated in 1887, and its rotunda followed in 1890. Elder Street once had five hotels along a single block and still has the 1894 Mechanics Institute. Few original miners' cottages are left. The Skyline drive-in, opened in October 1956, closed in 1985 and its site became housing in the 1990s. The 2021 census counted 5,214 people.