July 2020 - Photo Time Tunnel

Aged “care” and the Covid crisis

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:July 31, 2020
Post category:- Personal writing Greg Ray's Writing
Post comments:1 Comment

For a sickening, towering illustration of the lack of effective and humane leadership that prevails in Australia today, look no further than the COVID-19 crisis ripping through aged “care” facilities in Victoria. In my opinion, some of these organisations should be sued for negligence. There was a highly foreseeable and very grave risk and it seems to me that some of those responsible failed utterly to prepare for it. Everybody knew, based on experience overseas and even as close to home as NSW, what would happen if the virus got into the old people’s homes. But…

Doug in National Service uniform

Doug Lithgow: an activ(ist) life

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:July 30, 2020
Post category:History Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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There was a time when it seemed as though no contentious conservation or heritage issue could arise in Newcastle, NSW, without the opinions of Doug Lithgow being sought and quoted. Never self-interested or egotistical, Doug was (and still is) the epitome of a generation of modest, hard-working community-minded idealists. Born in Gladesville, Sydney, in 1933, Doug loved the area around Gladesville; sailing on the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers with the Warrego Naval Training Group. He spent some of his early years with family at Gilgandra, under the shadow of the Warrumbungle Mountains. His police officer…

Gravestones to be returned to the Cathedral cemetery

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:July 30, 2020
Post category:History Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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About 40 gravestones now in storage at Newcastle City Council's works depot are expected to be restored and replaced in their original positions at the city's Christ Church Anglican Cathedral. Council project manager Tony Ayling told me the work was scheduled for the 2021-2022 financial year, provided funding was available. The historic cemetery, originally proclaimed in 1817, received more than 3300 burials by the time it closed in 1884. Sadly, despite its great historical significance, the burial ground suffered badly after it was transferred to the ownership of the council in 1972. Many stones were shifted…