Google Business Profile management in Newcastle

Newcastle at a glance

Newcastle is the third largest city in KwaZulu-Natal and the province's industrial centre. It lies on the Ncandu River at about 1,194 metres above sea level and is the seat of the Amajuba district.

The city has four industrial areas, and the ArcelorMittal steel works is among the largest employers. Factories bring suppliers, transport firms and contractors, and they all search for each other on Google by service.

Madadeni and Osizweni are large townships, separated by the N11. Residents there search by area, so a business that names them in its service area is more likely to show up.

Newcastle serves a wide region, including Utrecht, Vryheid, Dundee and Glencoe. People drive in to shop, see a doctor or buy parts, and they check hours before they make the trip.

The city is on the Battlefields Route, and the Carnegie Art Gallery draws visitors. It also lies on the railway between Johannesburg and Durban, so rail and road travellers stop over.

The first train reached Newcastle in 1890, with borough status following in 1891. In 1920 the Union Steel Corporation built the province's first steel plant, which led to today's ArcelorMittal Newcastle Works.

Since the mid 1980s about 200 Chinese owned businesses have grown in the city's textile and plastics industries, and about 3,000 people of Chinese descent live in Newcastle. The Nan Hua Temple keeps a branch here.

Newcastle sits at the foothills of the northern Drakensberg, and winters are cold, and snow falls now and then. Heaters, plumbers and gas suppliers see demand spike when temperatures fall below freezing.

The Surveyor General, Dr P C Sutherland, set the site in 1854 beside the Ncandu River, and the town was founded in 1864. It now serves Utrecht, Vryheid, Dannhauser, Glencoe and Dundee.

Part of Airport Industrial became the Newcastle Chemical Park in 2014, home to African Amines, Karbochem, KC Energy and LANXESS.

Fort Amiel, in Amiel Park, is a British military base built in 1876 by the 80th Regiment, the Staffordshire Regiment, and restored to open as Newcastle's Cultural History Museum in 1990. Battlefield tourists starting their routes there search for guides, breakfast and guesthouses close to town.

Fort Amiel saw use during the Anglo Zulu War of 1879 and the Anglo Boer Wars of 1881 and 1899 to 1902. Nearby Amajuba, a Zulu name meaning hill of many doves, gave its name to a post office, the Majuba railway station and Amajuba Park, a township in Newcastle, according to SA History Online.

Trading notes for Newcastle

Cold Newcastle winters, factory shifts and month end shape trade, with shoppers from Dannhauser and Utrecht driving in on Saturdays.

Check the dates with our holiday hours tool.