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Read more about the article On a hot Australia Day in 1945
A broken water main on the corner of King and Darby Streets, Newcastle, NSW, January 26, 1945.

On a hot Australia Day in 1945

Believe it or not, this photograph was taken at the corner of King and Darby Streets, Newcastle, on Australia Day, 1945. A lug on a King Street hydrant had snapped off and for about 15 minutes some local children took advantage of the cooling spray. The photo is somewhat disorienting, since the buildings have long gone and the land they stood on is now part of Civic Park. Even the Salvation Army People's Palace in the background has gone, making way for the Conservatorium of Music. The now-demolished buildings can be seen bottom left in this…

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Read more about the article Maitland’s “double-headless” murders of 1960.
Police at the scene of the murder at East Maitland, 1960

Maitland’s “double-headless” murders of 1960.

On Saturday, April 23, 1960, Maitland reeled in shock when news broke of a gruesome double murder in a small isolated hut off Turton Road, not far from the East Maitland brickworks. Sydney Shelley, 34, and his 21-year-old wife Elva had been killed and their heads cut off and removed. The couple’s baby was found alive but distressed in a cot in the house. A post-mortem revealed that Elva had been pregnant with a second child at the time of her death. Sydney and Elva Shelley were murdered and decapitated When news of the murders broke,…

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Read more about the article Your future may depend on READING “the news”.
Paper seller at BHP Newcastle, NSW, 1962

Your future may depend on READING “the news”.

HAVING spent decades working in the newspaper industry, I flatter myself that I have learnt how to read newspapers. I don’t mean just reading them: I mean really READING them, which is a different thing. You see, I have come to understand that the news isn’t what I once thought it was. Long ago I thought the daily news was a reasonably accurate account of important events in the world around us, brought to us by professionals who were bound by their ethics to quarantine their personal biases. What is emphasized? What is ignored? I soon…

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