© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Read more about the article The dairy herd travelled by punt
Mrs Farley and her children cross the river by punt, ahead of Mr Farley and the dairy herd.

The dairy herd travelled by punt

It was February 24, 1948, and the Farley family of Eagleton, near Raymond Terrace, NSW, had a difficult house-moving problem. The farming family was shifting from their home of the past 10 years at Eagleton to a new address at Millers Forest. The problem was how to shift the farm's 47 milking cows across the Hunter River. The Farleys' dairy herd boarding the punt. Fortunately, the Raymond Terrace punt supplied the solution. Shortly after midday on the day of the big shift, Mrs Farley and her three children - Cecil, Warren and Nola - crossed the…

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Read more about the article A Catalina almost bombed Cessnock

A Catalina almost bombed Cessnock

On April 22, 1946, some residents of Cessnock were told by police to evacuate their homes and remove their children to safety. A Catalina flying boat from Rathmines RAAF base was going to drop bombs nearby, and authorities wanted to make sure there were no accidental casualties. A Catalina flying boat from the Rathmines base at Lake Macquarie, circa 1942. The unexpected evacuation order had nothing to do with the widespread severe flooding across the Lower Hunter at the time. Instead, it was fire that prompted the demand. Earlier that week a disused portion of Cessnock…

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Read more about the article Newcastle’s ELMA lamp works and the light bulb conspiracy

Newcastle’s ELMA lamp works and the light bulb conspiracy

In the 1920s and 1930s the Commonwealth Bank's "Industrial Purpose Accounts Officer" in Newcastle was a Mr John Henry. Mr Henry made it his business to visit some of Newcastle's bigger industrial plants and he wrote some accounts of his visits in the bank's staff journal, Bank Notes. Mr Henry visited Electric Lamp Manufactures Australia (ELMA) in 1933, when the factory - in Clyde Street, Hamilton - was just two years old and regarded as the peak of modernity. Notably, the major light bulb manufacturers decided to set up the factory as a joint venture, simply…

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