© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Read more about the article Rankin Park street names record a corporate disaster

Rankin Park street names record a corporate disaster

I grew up in the Newcastle suburb of Rankin Park. It was a new suburb when we moved into the new house that was built there for my parents, in De Guerry Avenue, in 1969. It was a pretty good place to grow up. I could walk to South Wallsend school, to Scouts and to soccer practice. Rankin Park adjoined a big area of bushland where my brother and I spent countless hours, walking and riding our bikes on trails that extended between the old Wallsend brickworks, Jesmond Park, the Hollywood depression settlement, the Skyline Drive-in…

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Read more about the article Julie Keating’s Newcastle histories
Julie with her most recent book.

Julie Keating’s Newcastle histories

Julie Keating's publishing career began with a question. She wanted to know the original location of Lambton Colliery, when it was operating many decades ago in her home suburb of Lambton. Julie was a little surprised to realise just how effectively traces of the once-big mining operation had been erased. The former librarian - who already loved historical research - threw herself into this question. Of course she found answers to many more questions about Lambton that she hadn't yet thought to ask and soon she found herself sitting on a stockpile of information about the…

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Read more about the article Walter Filmer, x-ray pioneer and polymath
Walter Filmer at his home at Toronto and one of his x-ray images. Photos from the Scholey-Upfold collection, Newcastle University Special Collections.

Walter Filmer, x-ray pioneer and polymath

In the later years of the 19th century science enthusiasts all over the world were captivated by the mysteries and possibilities of electricity and magnetism. Few imagined, I suppose, that their experiments with batteries, magnetos and other pieces of equipment were steps on a path that would soon lead humans to discover how to tear matter apart and use the unimaginable power of the energy they liberated to incinerate tens of thousands of other people. These early experimenters pottered about in their laboratories - often in their homes - solving riddles, creating more riddles for others…

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