© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Read more about the article Our Town Revisited: Newcastle in colour with a focus on the 1970s

Our Town Revisited: Newcastle in colour with a focus on the 1970s

This is the Newcastle that I remember from my own younger days. And this is the most personal of our books to date, peppered with fragmentary anecdotes of my memories of growing up in Our Town. My unrequited wish to go on Romper Room, for example. And of course my still-jarring memories of the 1989 earthquake - the 30th anniversary of which coincides with the production of this book. Newcastle's East End, late 1970s. Photo by Ron Morrison. For the past decade, Sylvia and I have produced a collection of historical photographs each year. It started…

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Read more about the article When the dead travelled by tram
A coffin being carried to Newcastle Railway Station from a tram hearse, circa 1934.

When the dead travelled by tram

In years gone by, the dead were frequent patrons of Newcastle's public transport system. As a matter of fact, the city's tramways offered a unique service, taking deceased folk from the homes of their loved ones in specially made hearse trailers to connect with trains to cemetery. One of Newcastle's old hearse trailers, made to be towed behind a tram. Visitors arriving at Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle, by train on Mothers Day 1939. Ideally, the body would - after having been farewelled in the family home - be carried to a tram stop where, by arrangement, the…

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Read more about the article Newcastle’s harbour punts and the Trial Bay disaster
Newcastle car ferry Kooroongabah, photo by Ron Jones

Newcastle’s harbour punts and the Trial Bay disaster

Crossing Newcastle Harbour has for many years been both a challenge for travellers and commuters and an opportunity for the operators of ferries and punts. A great variety of ferries came and went from Newcastle over the decades, with some used chiefly as industrial transport and others available for general passengers. A car awaits a ride across Newcastle Harbour on April 14, 1910. Photo by Ernest Brougham Docker. Vehicular ferries (always known in Newcastle as punts) filled a vital role, and until the advent of Stockton Bridge in 1971, they often had their work cut out…

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