A mining engineer, James (Jim) Johnstone, at that time Colliery Manager at Richmond Main Colliery, owned by J & A Brown, was a Past President and foundation member of the West Maitland Club.  The Richmond Main Colliery was situated on the South Maitland Coalfield of which Cessnock was the principal business and trading centre.

Jim was convinced that a Rotary Club could be established in Cessnock despite some doubts in Rotary circles that it might not succeed in such a remote, one industry, militant, working class area.  However, the then Governor Inglis (Dingo) Robertson requested that Maitland Club carry out a survey and Jim Johnstone was entrusted with this work.

From information received he contacted Don Gray, Manager of the Commonwelath Bank and Jake Smith Manager of the local motion picture circuit, who were both ex-Rotarians.  This work of gathering together the nucleus of the new club was carried out in 1936 and early 1937. Early in 1937 a meeting was called by Jim Johnstone as first president and Jack Prior as secretary.

The first dinner of the provisional club was held in the Wentworth Hotel on 6 May 1937 and the Club met there on Thursday evenings until 24 June when the meeting place was changed to the White Rose Cafe.  The dinner charge to the members was two shillings.

The Club Charter was granted on 28 June 1937, numbered 4333. The West Maitland Club made it possible to establish the new club by ceding territory and the boundary between the two clubs was defined as "a line drawn north and south through Heddon Greta." The territorial limits of the Cessnock Club extended to the whole of the Western Areas.

Charter Night was held on 13 November 1937 in the Masonic Hall.  A total of 250 members and guests were present and at that time it was the largest attendance at a charter night in any country town in Australia. The Charter was presented by the then District Governor Sir Robert Garran.