Hinton is a suburb of the Port Stephens Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Primarily rural, the largest population centre is the township of Hinton, which is situated on the Paterson River

Paterson River

The Paterson River, a tributary of the Hunter River, is a significant river in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. Its headwaters are in the Barrington Tops National Park and it flows to join the Hunter River between Hinton and Morpeth...

, near to the confluence of the Hunter and Paterson rivers.

Floods

Due to the close proximity of the Hunter and Paterson rivers and the low elevation of surrounding ground the town is often isolated for a number of days during periods of exceptionally high rainfall. Most recently this happened in March 2000 and June 2007.