 Lieutenant Edward Close, an engineer and founder of Morpeth, recorded that part of the Wallsend area was called Barrahinebin by the Aboriginal custodians.Close reported that Barrahinebin was used to describe the area bounded by the Hunter River, Ironbark Creek and Mount Sugarloaf.Wallsend was named after a North of England coal mining township, initially built at the end of a Roman defensive wall, a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne.