IT has been 100 years since BHP established steel making in Newcastle.
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The steelworks were officially opened on June 2, 1915, and became the city's biggest employer. At its peak 13,000 people worked at the site.
Newcastle was dubbed a steel city until the operation's closure on September 30, 1999.
The Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association will celebrate the centenary with a community event this Tuesday, June 2.
Organiser Bob Cook said the steelworks left its mark on Newcastle and the Hunter.
"The majority of Hunter people know or are related to someone who once worked at the steelworks," he said.
Mr Cook encouraged former steelworkers and their families, along with the general public, to be part of the event.
At the commemoration, the Steel Workers Memorial, designed by local blacksmith William Maguire and made with BHP Newcastle steel, will be unveiled. It is designed to honour the steelworks as well as recognise those workers who lost their lives. There will also be a sealing of a time capsule.
The event will take place at the Muster Point, a house-sized sculpture erected in 1999 to commemorate the closure of the steelworks, in Mayfield.
■ 100th anniversary of BHP establishing steel making in Newcastle, June 2, Muster Point, former BHP Steelworks site, corner of Industrial Drive and Selwyn Street, Mayfield, 10am.
