© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle NSW

Read more about the article No girls, people with disabilities or sons of miners need apply: bad old days of banking in NSW
Hunter Street, Newcastle, in the 1920s. The Bank of Australasia is at the right-hand edge of the photo.

No girls, people with disabilities or sons of miners need apply: bad old days of banking in NSW

During World War 1, when the Newcastle branch of the Bank of Australasia was struggling to recruit the staff it needed to run its business, the organisation still couldn't see its way clear to hire girls, sons of miners or people with disabilities. Fascinating insights into the banking industry in Newcastle during the war years have emerged through some correspondence of William Miles Coverdale, the bank's Newcastle manager at the time. William Miles Coverdale Copies of the letters were kindly loaned by William Coverdale's granddaughter, Pam Parsons, who received them as a gift from a banking…

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Read more about the article By steamer overnight to Sydney

By steamer overnight to Sydney

Before the railway crossed the Hawkesbury River, the sea route was an obvious choice for intercity travellers, and the steamer wharf in Newcastle Harbour had a busy passenger terminal. A 1930s brochure invites passengers to “take the cheaper and more comfortable route to Newcastle or Sydney, ensuring a complete night’s rest in passenger accommodation comparing favourably with that of steamers employed in deep sea trades”.The brochure promised “up-to-date bath and lavatory accommodation” and “refreshments and moderate rates”. Steamers left both cities at 11.30 each night, except Sundays. Passengers could buy single or return tickets as well…

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Read more about the article Phyllis Mook, jitterbug star and pocket dynamo

Phyllis Mook, jitterbug star and pocket dynamo

The Mook family, an institution in the Hunter area for many decades, was justly famous for many reasons: Chinese restaurants, fruit shops, SP bookmaking, charitable work and – perhaps most of all to people who lived through the 1940s – producing the city’s best-known jitterbug star. Phyllis Mook was born in 1926 and grew up familiar with her family’s businesses. She worked in the fruit and vegetable shops and sometimes, according to her daughter Teresa Purnell, played the role of “cockatoo” or lookout at the family’s SP betting shop (known as “Mum’s”) in Beaumont Street, Hamilton.…

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