© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Vintage Photographs and Photography

Read more about the article The Goldsmith’s shoe store fire in Newcastle
Fighting the fire. Image by Ron Morrison.

The Goldsmith’s shoe store fire in Newcastle

Goldsmith's shoe store had been a landmark business in Newcastle, NSW, for decades before a fatal fire in September 1961 dreadfully seared the name into local consciousness. The fire cost three lives - a woman and two of her children. At the time of the fire Ron Morrison was operating his photo agency in Newcastle, and his series of images captures the drama of the firefighting effort. The store Goldsmith's traced its beginnings in Newcastle to December 13, 1897, when Bristol-born Frank Goldsmith first set up a shoe store in Hunter Street. The business thrived, and…

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Read more about the article Newcastle aviation history and the Walsh Island aerodrome
The Codock in Newcastle in 1934. From a glass negative.

Newcastle aviation history and the Walsh Island aerodrome

Early efforts to bring commercial aviation to Newcastle, NSW, were many, but largely unsuccessful. A push by Charles Kingsford Smith and some of his supporters to create Australia's biggest aerodrome at Walsh Island were almost successful, but fell victim to politics and - most likely - the onset of the Great Depression. The first reference I've found to a commercial air service being offered to Newcastle residents is this article in The Sydney Morning Herald on January 29, 1920, in which "Mr H. E. Broadsmith, engineer-in-chief to the Australian Engineering and Aircraft Company, who accompanied Mr…

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Read more about the article Stories of a picture show man
Early travelling picture show apparatus. Photo from the book The Picture Show Man

Stories of a picture show man

IN 1971 writerJoan Long was researching a documentary about Australian cinema in the 1920s. She wrote a letter to newspapers in a number of regional centres, trying to flush out stories and photos relevant to her work. The letter was picked up by NBN television in Newcastle which interviewed Long about her research. Among the people who watched the interview was a man named Lyle Penn, who had written a manuscript about his life as a travelling picture show man in the early years of the 20th century. Penn sent a copy of the manuscript to…

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