the Hunter River. Newcastle was the main port, during the time of the Australian Agricultural Company's monopoly on the mining of coal (1828–1847). The Australian Agricultural Company built the first rail line in Australia, from its mines to the Newcastle port.By the 1860s, Newcastle was a busy coal port with both the privately owned coal staiths and the government-owned Queen's Wharf in operation. The Queen's Wharf was connected to the Great Northern Railway—opened as far as East Maitland in 1857—and had six steam cranes used for loading coal. The westernmost staithes were the privately owned staithes of Australian Agricultural Company, which were connected to their private railway line. The stathes to their east were connected to the Great Northern Railway and to the Glebe Railway. With the completion of the port at nearby Carrington and the end of coal mining in Newcastle itself, the importance of the old port of Newcastle as a coal port, declined. Steam cranes were relocated from Newcastle to the Dyke at Carrington and two of the cranes went to Stockton. Morpeth The river port at Morpeth on the Hunter River was used to load coal mined in the Maitland area by J & A Brown from around 1843. Coal was also needed to recoal steamers at the port. Although it lies far downstream from the tidal limit, Morpeth was the effective head of navigation of the Hunter, because farther upstream there were many large bends in the river between Morpeth and Maitland. Aside from greatly increasing the distance by water to Maitland, these bends were difficult for vessels to navigate. It also lay just upstream of the confluence of the Hunter River and the Paterson River, below which the river broadens. Morpeth had been a river port from the 1830s. The importance of Morpeth as a port began to decline, once the railway from Newcastle reached East Maitland in 1857. A branch railway to the old port was opened in 1864. There were coal staiths and a railway siding for these at Morpeth, These new staiths were still unfinished in early 1866. Once completed, the new Morpeth staithes were rarely used. By the late 1870s, little coal had been loaded there and, by the late 1880s, the coal staiths were in a derelict and dangerous condition. Construction of the Morpeth Bridge, downstream of the staiths, in 1896 to 1898, ended any possibility of their revival,