This warm, well-watered and sunshine filled town was the fourth town founded in Natal. It was named after the Duke of Newcastle (British-Colonial Secretary of the Cape at the time). It was surveyed in 1864 and featured prominently in Transvaal’s first war of Independence. It is where the penultimate battle was fought at Skuinshoogte (sloping mountain), in 1881. It was also a strategic town in the Anglo-Boer war, featuring prominently in both the Boer and English defence.

Coal was discovered in the district in the late 1800's, but the town’s original industry was washing and spinning wool from sheep, which are farmed in the area. Steel furnaces dominate the town today as well as coal related industries. The local Indian population have erected what is reputed to be the largest domed Hindu temple in the Southern Hemisphere.