Memories

As mining cancerously erodes St. Patrick Plains’ alluvial bounty – “the finest sheep country he (John Howe) had seen since leaving England” – it is grim irony indeed that global conglomerates dispossess by legislative violence the Valley community’s rural inheritance,

Newcastle courthouse now stands as one of the most notable buildings in Newcastle, an iconic and welcoming facility that meets the client brief of connection with the community.” ~ TTW structural engineers. Welcoming… in a jaggedly immense sort of way.

May in Newcastle – calm mild days, cool nights. A stretch of tranquil weather let fallen leaves carpet footpaths at Islington. The accumulation is fortuitous in streets regularly swept by heavy traffic, pedestrians, wind gusts or stormy change – and,

Bound for South Africa, Newcastle’s floating dock Muloobinba ends 34 years service Muloobinba was launched in Japan 4 November 1977 and towed by the tug East Sea, arriving 4 January 1978, and entered port on the 7th. It replaced the

Lake Macquarie, one of Australia’s east coast watery treasures, has lived with coal mining and assorted industries for 200 years. It endured toxic emissions from the “sulphide Works” for most of last century, the small mining community of Boolaroo absorbing

When a City is Perfect Editor’s note:  This essay, written in 2008, reflected apprehension at a plan by The GPT Group to carve out the northern side of The Hill in front of Christ Church Cathedral and construct a shopping

Early morning on Kooragang Island, Tuesday, 12 May 2009. Sound asleep among the trees, South Maitland Railways (SMR) No. 19 steam locomotive stirred, oblivious to a human inspecting her under-workings. It was that recurring nightmare: eternity since the last coal

Newcastle City, on the Hunter River, is Australia’s sixth largest and second oldest city on the Pacific coast, 100 miles north of Sydney. Former steel city and export hub to the agricultural and timber wealth of the Hunter Valley, Newcastle

We each imagine how this town might be, but lack knowledge, experience, and expertise to think it through to detailed, workable, even exciting plans. A hybrid light-heavy rail plan is presented in full, below. It seeks a best outcome for

Nothing is more impressive than a cruise ship up close Newcastle’s harbour is compact and very accessible, which makes ship watching a passive interest for all who enjoy the foreshore. Celebrity Millennium is one of the larger vessels to visit

In late 2006 Newcastle’s most famous building, the Palais Royale, was partially demolished. A year later its street front was sadly and brutally flattened. Palais Royale April 2007 in Hunter Street locale. West (left) to East. Click to view album.

First, some protocol. Locals can say “Kurri” but you and I are advised to say “Kurri Kurri.” Artist Chris Fussell supplied the obligatory large animal sculpture at town’s entrance. Photo by Chris. One warm May in 2008, two impatient passengers

MV Pasha Bulker leaves Newcastle Harbour 26 July 2007 for repairs in Japan Eleven o’clock departure time was an hour ago, yet Newcastle Harbour lay wide, flat, blue… and empty. There was no sign that an injured Panamax freighter was

The excitement of shipwreck is a universal emotion. With no lives lost, a sea wreck at close range is an imposing, awe-inspiring, and exciting experience. Spectators, however, are rarely callous. Image right: Pasha Bulker is fully two football fields long,

Gully Line under Lambton Road looking north-east, flowing to Throsby Creek Remnants of the actual “Gully Line” coal rail track

Remember Gracelands on Violet Town Road, Belmont North? One of our region’s outstanding Christmas displays. Here’s a few memories for you. Maybe you were there that night in December 2004. Gracelands was a magic place. Children lucky enough to see

Natural wealth Newcastle and the Hunter Valley are a region of vast natural wealth. Coal caught the eye of early English explorers, plucked easily from seams on the tiny island guarding the port’s entrance. Timber, once readily gathered from the

Newcastle loves boats. The harbour, foreshores, breakwaters, and beaches make boat-watching an easy and inviting pleasure. When a special maritime visitor draws crowds of Novocastrians from their daily rounds, well, the occasions are quite spectacular. Kookaburra 1 (KA-11) arrives off

I saw the first boat launched at Walsh Island, the Stockton ferry Mildred, and now I’ve come to see the last boat launched at Newcastle. I am sad, very sad.” ~ R. Lindsay of Carrington, former dockyard apprentice pattern maker.

It’s 1970. Colour television is coming and Newcastle’s Channel 3 has a lot of work to do. Viewers are impatient. After all, Baird demonstrated colour in 1940 (as my Scottish neighbour regularly reminds me), the Yanks were watching “color” in

At daybreak on the 17 February, 1969, media crews arrived at Newcastle’s State Dockyard site at Carrington’s Dyke End peninsular. Above ~ Walsh Island at dawn, taken from Eastern Wharf’s crane on launch day. In three hours time another historic

This is how Outside Broadcast crews were described in The Monochrome Years, and a good place to start this pictorial tribute: …the real “thrill seekers” were OB technicians who had to drive a mobile studio sometimes hundreds of kilometers to

The grant of a commercial television licence is a privilege of great public importance, especially to the people in the area in which the station is established; and there seems little doubt for its most effective use a commercial television

Crowds and a procession of cars inspect the aftermath of a winter storm in 1948 Late in the afternoon of Sunday, 20th June 1948, Henry Skilton joined the swarm of Stockton sightseers inspecting the damage wrought by the previous week’s

Illalong at final resting place 5 klm south of Redhead ~ from the H.G.Skilton Collection. The Little Coastal Steamer that Never Gave Up In March 1908, shipping news reported that Messrs. E. D. Pike and Company had a vessel named

Defining Newcastle A place of punishment – and a scramble for coal In a spirit of friendly rivalry a Sydneyite might suggest little has changed in two centuries, that Newcastle is still a coal city and a place of punishment.