The first Australia Day, July 30, 1915
At the time of The Great War, the modern conception of Australia Day did not exist. Australia as a nation had only been born in 1901, and even after that…
US troops practice landing at Port Stephens, NSW, during World War 2.
The wartime US invasion of Port Stephens
At the peak of the Allied Pacific campaign in World War 2, more than 14,000 American and British troops were based in the Shoal Bay area of Port Stephens. Shoal…
Wounded seaman being carried from the damaged freighter Allara in Newcastle, 1942
Wartime fears of a seaman’s daughter
FOR young Daphne Roper the most important thing about any ship entering Newcastle Harbour in the difficult years of World War II was its funnel. Daphne’s father Alexander McMorran was…