© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

The Co-operative Colliery, Plattsburg

My late friend Dulcie Hartley wrote about the Co-operative Colliery at Plattsburg as a follow-up to her work on the life and career of "The Miners' Advocate": James Fletcher. I've transcribed her unpublished typescript. Chapter 1 follows: The following account attempts to summarise the development of the nineteenth century coal mining industry in the Newcastle district, with emphasis on the movement towards unionism and the co-operative system. With a particular focus on the emergence of the New South Wales Co-operative Coal Mining Company at Plattsburg, near Wallsend, and the role played by James Fletcher. Chapter 1:…

Continue ReadingThe Co-operative Colliery, Plattsburg

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…

Continue ReadingRankin Park street names record a corporate disaster
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…

Continue ReadingJulie Keating’s Newcastle histories
×
×

Cart