Newcastle, NSW, Australia Archives

Part of the Showground during the 1985 Show

Newcastle Showground’s past and future

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:March 17, 2025
Post category:Greg Ray's Writing History Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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The mistake was made - in all innocence - back in the 1970s. That at least is how Peter Evans, the president of Newcastle's Show Committee, sees it. According to Mr Evans, it was in the 1970s that the Newcastle Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Association was incorporated. "That's when the committee should have ensured that title in the Showground was transferred to the new incorporated body," he said. "Instead, it was left as it had been since 1905, vested in the trustees." That, in Mr Evans' view, left the door open for a future State Government…

Boatshed homes on the Hunter River at Hexham in 1941. Photo by R. Donaldson for Pix magazine. State Library of NSW

When the system failed the river was life

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:March 1, 2025
Post category:History Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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When the Great Depression hit in the early 1930s, people who had forgotten what hunger felt like were suddenly and forcefully reminded. Around Newcastle and the Hunter, desperate people without jobs or income walked away from homes when they couldn't afford rent or rates. They sold their bank accounts (many of them frozen) for pennies in the pound. Hundreds of families set up makeshift homes wherever they could find undisputed space. Camps of huts built of whitewashed hessian and tin sheets flattened from kerosene cans sprang up on the outskirts of the towns. Some people "went…

Pam as a young haematologist (left) and with her treasured medallion from the Haemophilia Society.

Pam Harrison: a life of caring and professionalism

Post author:Greg Ray
Post published:February 28, 2025
Post category:History Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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One of the pioneers of palliative care in the Hunter, haematologist Dr Pamela Harrison OAM has also written a number of authoritative and illuminating history publications. Pam Harrison remembers a time in the mid-1970s when, driving from one demanding job at Newcastle Blood Bank to another at the Mater Hospital at Waratah, she found herself contemplating an upcoming break from work. "I didn't want to go on holiday," she laughed. "I loved my work so much!" Talking to Pam about her career it becomes clear just how much she truly loved her work. She found a…

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Buried treasure: Newcastle’s “Maritime Museum” March 18, 2025
Newcastle Showground’s past and future March 17, 2025
Stolen memories in history’s melting pot March 5, 2025
When the system failed the river was life March 1, 2025
Pam Harrison: a life of caring and professionalism February 28, 2025