© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Author: Greg Ray

This author has written 481 articles
Read more about the article The Rothbury Colliery “riot” of 1929

The Rothbury Colliery “riot” of 1929

IT was December 16, 1929. Christmas was just around the corner, but it wasn’t shaping up to be a merry one for many residents of the Hunter Valley Coalfields of NSW. In March, thousands of coalminers had been locked out of their workplaces by mine owners whose profits were being eroded by the steadily unfolding financial catastrophe of the Great Depression. The mine owners wanted the miners to take a hefty pay-cut, but the miners refused – unless and until the mine owners opened their books and revealed the true state of their profits and costs.…

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Read more about the article The Hunter Valley in the 1960s: on film

The Hunter Valley in the 1960s: on film

In 1961, when dairying was one of the Hunter Valley's major industries and it seemed that the valley's future would be as a food-bowl to the nation and perhaps the world, the Hunter Valley Co-operative Dairy Company Ltd decided it wanted to make a film about the wonderfully fertile and productive valley it called home. The idea came from company general manager Jack Scarr, who had attended a dairy congress overseas and was shocked at the lack of knowledge about Australia in general, and the Hunter Valley in particular. It was planned to use the film…

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Read more about the article My heart tells me we should change the date
My great uncle John William "Jack" Allsopp.

My heart tells me we should change the date

I’m glad to be Australian, and I cherish my deep roots in this amazing continent. On my father’s side of my family I can find convict ancestors, brought to the penal colony for attempting highway robbery and for stealing a piece of ribbon from an employer. My mother – born out of wedlock to a woman who couldn't keep her and to a father whose identity we don’t know - was adopted by a big-hearted Salvation Army woman descended from English stock and her part-Aboriginal husband. He was a gentle giant of a man whose indigenous…

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