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Monthly Archives: October 2019

Read more about the article Queen Elizabeth visits Newcastle, 1954
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at BHP steelworks, Newcastle, NSW, February 9, 1954.

Queen Elizabeth visits Newcastle, 1954

On Tuesday, February 9, 1954, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II visited Newcastle with her husband, Prince Philip. It was part of a nationwide tour - the first visit to Australia by a reigning monarch. To say Newcastle was excited would be an understatement. These following colour slide images, by the late John Stedman, show some of the efforts the city and its traders went to to mark the occasion with vivid decorations and night-time lighting. Newcastle City Hall Hunter Street Hunter Street Watt Street Hunter Street Winns store by day Winns at night The Store,…

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Read more about the article The wartime US invasion of Port Stephens
US troops practice landing at Port Stephens, NSW, during World War 2.

The wartime US invasion of Port Stephens

At the peak of the Allied Pacific campaign in World War 2, more than 14,000 American and British troops were based in the Shoal Bay area of Port Stephens. Shoal Bay's famous country club was requisitioned to become a headquarters for part of the amphibious warfare training area known as JOOTS (Joint Overseas Operations Training Services). The Royal Australian Navy called its training establishment HMAS Assault, and the ships HMAS Westralia, HMAS Manoora, HMAS Kanimbla and USS Henry T. Allen were frequently in the port, along with more than 130 other vessels of varying sizes. The…

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Read more about the article The logbook of Captain Robert Huddle
Robert Huddle's watercolour of the Royal Mail Steamer Scotia, one of the ships on which he worked.

The logbook of Captain Robert Huddle

A year or two ago I was privileged to receive a remarkable book from the library of a friend who had passed away. It is a hefty bound volume, containing a logbook of the travels of a 19th century English seafarer named Robert Huddle. The book contains an introductory essay, day-by-day accounts of many of his voyages and experiences, and a concluding essay. The book is handwritten in ink, and its pages are interspersed with delightful watercolour paintings depicting some of the ships on which Mr Huddle worked and scenes he observed during his travels. I…

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