© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Hunter Valley

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

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 Stories from old postcards: Part 1

Stories from old postcards: Part 1

Old postcards can be interesting for a variety of reasons. For a start, they are often interesting for the subject matter they depict. And sometimes they also carry interesting titbits of historical information in the messages written on their backs. I've picked a handful from my collection and transcribed the often hard-to-read inscriptions. . Your parcel is on its way . . . This one is easy to read, at least, having been typed by a staff member of renowned Newcastle department store Winns. Mrs Lowrey, of Booral, has ordered a parcel from Winns, and Winns…

Continue ReadingStories from old postcards: Part 1
Read more about the article The great flood of 1955: Part 2
Aerial view of central Maitland during the 1955 flood.

The great flood of 1955: Part 2

This is part two of an account of the 1955 flood, as it affected the Hunter Region, particularly Maitland. For Part 1, see link below. ******************************************************************************************************************** The chaos of Friday and the terrifying night that followed gave way to a slightly more organised situation on Saturday as rescue operations moved into high gear and more volunteers descended on the drowned city of Maitland. But the confusion was still immense and nobody had any real idea of the death toll, which was assumed to be at least 20. People were frantically trying to contact missing family members.…

Continue ReadingThe great flood of 1955: Part 2
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