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Monthly Archives: December 2021

Read more about the article William Henry Weston, Hunter photographer

William Henry Weston, Hunter photographer

William Henry Weston was a prolific photographer in the Lower Hunter Region of NSW in the early 1900s, but circumstances have conspired to prevent him gaining the recognition he deserves. Born at West Maitland on December 19, 1871, William was the fifth child of of James Weston Jnr and Edith Fielder, and the grandson of James Weston Snr, the former convict landholder whose name survives in the Coalfields town of Weston. William married Effie Pearl Bishop on January 14, 1911 at Woodville. Their three children were Selwyn (1912), Errol (1914) and Milton (1916). From 1918 the…

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Read more about the article When our watchdogs let us down
When "Freedom" means a billionaire's right-wing front organisation hijacking your paper's front page

When our watchdogs let us down

December 9, 2021 Opinion by Greg Ray The sight of those nonsensical black and yellow advertisements for mining magnate Clive Palmer's political spoiler organisation on the front page of my local newspaper is upsetting, I admit. When I saw them the first thing I wondered was, why does the newspaper accept advertising from that dreadful troll club? I've heard of instances, in the past, when newspaper owners stood on their dignity and refused to publish certain ads, arguing that they were harmful, misleading or beyond the pale in some other way. Might this not be one…

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Read more about the article An uncensored letter from wartime New Guinea

An uncensored letter from wartime New Guinea

To beat the official censors who read mail sent by Australians serving in New Guinea in World War 2, those servicemen sometimes got their mates going home on leave to carry letters and post them in Australia. It was a simple and effective way to evade the prying eyes of officialdom, whose job it was to make sure that important military details didn't accidentally fall into enemy hands and that the people at home didn't hear too much about the grim reality of the war. Accounts I have read by servicemen suggest that mail from home…

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