© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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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Read more about the article How the Cold War shaped David McLean’s life

How the Cold War shaped David McLean’s life

Popular Newcastle bookseller David McLean came to Australia from the US with his parents in 1963, fleeing the shadows cast by the Cuban missile crisis. Here are some of David's recollections: David McLean was in his second-last year of high school in Lincoln, Nebraska, when then US President John F. Kennedy appeared on television to warn the nation that the USSR was placing nuclear missiles on Cuba and that the USA had no option but to take firm action. The news filled millions of Americans with dread, and David's parents - his father had been a…

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