Beresfield, New South Wales

Beresfield is a north-western suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, located 22 km from Newcastle's central business district. It is part of the City of Newcastle local government area.

The suburb of Beresfield had a population of 3,118 in 2006.

Geography
Beresfield, like the neighbouring suburbs of Tarro, Woodberry and Thorton, is located on a low ridge rising out of the surrounding floodplain and wetlands of the Hunter River. Beresfield is divided by Anderson Drive (formerly Maitland Road) which runs east to west. The part of Beresfield to the north of Anderson Drive includes the shopping centre and railway station. The part south of Anderson Drive includes the bowling club, swimming pool, sports oval and Newcastle Memorial Park cemetery and crematorium.

Transport
It has a railway station, opened in 1925 on CityRail's Hunter line. It is just north of the New England Highway.

Facilities
The first public school in Beresfield was Upper Hexham Public School, now in the grounds of Beresfield Public School. The closest public secondary school is Francis Greenway High School.

Beresfield has a small shopping centre featuring a post office, banks, Safeways (Woolworths) supermarket, newsagent, physiotherapist, doctors' surgeries, petrol stations, take-aways and other stores. There is a branch of the Newcastle Region Library and an unused police station.

Sporting facilities include a swimming pool, bowling club, golf course, cricket oval and rugby and soccer fields.

Churches include the Anglican church of St Pauls, which held its first service in 1949. The first timber St Pauls and its hall were built in 1955. A second brick church was built in 1980 following a fire.

In the 1970s a new Catholic parish church, Our Lady of Lourdes, was built at Beresfield. The original parish church had been located in Tarro. A station was opened at Beresfiled and to serve as a mass centre a former Army hut was transported from Greta and erected where the present parish church now stands. St Jude's was demolished with the new church taking the title of the old Parish church.

Active clubs & associations include local Scouting, Girl Guides, Lions & Rotary Clubs. Beresfield Thornton Girl Guide District is a very active youth organisation. The Girl Guides continue to give service to the local community by participating in Clean Up Australia Day, fundraising for charity and collecting items for those less fortunate.

Beresfield is the location of Newcastle Memorial Park cemetery and crematorium.

Sport
Beresfield has many sporting clubs including Thornton-Beresfield Bears Rugby League Club, Beresfield Memorial Cricket Club, Beresfield Junior & Senior Scoccer Clubs, Beresfield Touch Football and Beresfield Golf Club.

Industry
The Kent Colliery was located in Beresfield. In the 1940s the colliery was the subject of an investigation into subsidence complaints.

A major employer in the area has been the Steggles poultry processing plant.