© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle and the Hunter Region, by Ourselves: 2000 to 2020. We’re asking for help.

A few years ago Sylvia and I were giving a talk to a group, about old photos of course, and there was a lot of discussion about how lucky we and others had been at times to benefit from chance discoveries of caches of old negatives. Then Sylvia wondered aloud about photos from the digital era, and how future enthusiasts would manage to stumble on forgotten troves of images that had no physical analogue to help them survive. Having suffered the agony of a hard-drive failure, and the misery of a lightning strike that knocked out…

Continue ReadingNewcastle and the Hunter Region, by Ourselves: 2000 to 2020. We’re asking for help.
Read more about the article Robert Sneesby’s eyewitness account of old Newcastle
Newcastle, NSW, in 1886

Robert Sneesby’s eyewitness account of old Newcastle

Some years ago Mrs Margaret Thompson was visiting an elderly aunt to gather information for some family history research. A request for old photographs brought to light an old black exercise book in which the elderly lady's father, the late Robert Sneesby, had recorded many of his recollections of Newcastle in the late 1800s. Recognising the treasure, Mrs Thompson and her husband Stuart transcribed the document, added numerous photos from various sources and made a handful of copies. Some months ago she kindly loaned me a copy to scan. A copy of her transcribed document was…

Continue ReadingRobert Sneesby’s eyewitness account of old Newcastle
Read more about the article Accidents, prangs and crashes: Part 2
Burnt-out tram after a fatal crash at Jesmond on October 11, 1943

Accidents, prangs and crashes: Part 2

. As a career fireman, transport collector Ken Magor naturally accumulated many photographs of accidents and disasters. Here are some more tales of vehicular tragedy and misadventure from our Ken Magor archive. . Fatal wartime tram-truck smash at Jesmond The burnt-out tramThe late Fred Quayle . Thanks to Jack Nyman for this account. . At 11.30 am on 11th October,1943, tram driver Fred Quayle, 41, of Wallsend, was taking a two-car tram set bound from Newcastle to Plattsburg and Wallsend. He left Howe Street, Lambton, and began the 1 in 30 ascent over the Lambton range.…

Continue ReadingAccidents, prangs and crashes: Part 2
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