© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

History

Read more about the article A Newcastle girl’s letters from the WW 1 home front

A Newcastle girl’s letters from the WW 1 home front

Doris Schuck was 16 years old and living in Newcastle East when "The Great War" broke out. Like most youngsters in the community at the time she was intensely patriotic and she paid particular attention to the fortunes of "Newcastle's Own" 35th Battalion of the Australian Imperial Force, so often in the thick of fierce fighting on the Western Front in Europe. Living very close to Newcastle's Fort Scratchley - a relic of the Russian scare of the early 20th Century - she got to know quite a few young soldiers and she wrote to some…

Continue ReadingA Newcastle girl’s letters from the WW 1 home front
Read more about the article Radio operators in the 1955 flood
An army DUKW with flood refugees in Maitland during the 1955 flood crisis.

Radio operators in the 1955 flood

During the years I worked at The Newcastle Herald, I received many items of correspondence that I wasn't able to use. Often this material was very interesting, but if I had no immediate use for it (given that the newspaper was both selective and demanding about content and timing) it generally went into desk-top trays before migrating into filing cabinets. When I left the paper in 2015 brought home some boxes of this material which otherwise would have been disposed of. From time to time I dip into these old files - now in my home…

Continue ReadingRadio operators in the 1955 flood
Read more about the article Fishing for old photos, and the ones that get away
Fishing on the wharf at Newcastle. Photo by Russ Hughes.

Fishing for old photos, and the ones that get away

Sometimes I think collecting old photographic images is a little like fishing. There’s a lot of waiting and hoping, a lot of lines cast to no avail, a lot of hauling in tiddlers of minor interest and, very occasionally, the excitement of landing something really extraordinary. There are also the ones that get away. Like the time I was sitting in a person’s lounge room, perusing some nice old postcards they were selling, when I noticed a plastic container full of old photographic negatives on a chair opposite. Seeing me look in that direction the person…

Continue ReadingFishing for old photos, and the ones that get away
×
×

Cart