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Read more about the article Margel Hinder’s Newcastle Civic Park fountain
Civic Park Fountain, Newcastle. Photo by Barry Shoesmith.

Margel Hinder’s Newcastle Civic Park fountain

In these iconoclastic days, when statues are being hauled down and thrown into rivers, it's hardly surprising that some people have raised the question of whether Newcastle's Civic Park Fountain ought any longer to be named the "James Cook Memorial Fountain". In the days before the fountain . . . As a matter of fact, I'd be surprised if a very large proportion of Newcastle people even knew the famous fountain was named for the British explorer, whose reputation is now being revised in some quarters, mostly because of his negative attitude towards Australia's indigenous inhabitants…

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Two odd tales of shifting gates

On March 21, 1907, thousands of citizens of Newcastle, NSW, attended the Upper Reserve (nowadays more commonly known as King Edward Park) to witness the grand opening of a special gift to the city. The donor was businessman Joseph Wood, best remembered for his involvement in the city's Castlemaine Brewery but active in many other spheres. Mr Wood had donated a pair of splendid ornamental gates to mark his 50th year in Newcastle, and these were officially opened in the evening. Festoons of electric lights were strung from the gates at the top of Watt Street…

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Audley Reay’s memories of Newcastle and the Hunter in the 1880s

Among some papers given to me by Barry Magor - son of transport collector Ken Magor - was a photocopied pamphlet titled: Memories of the Hunter and Newcastle in the Eighties, by Audley Reay. That name was unfamiliar to me, until I spent a morning interviewing centenarian Neville Chant, who unexpectedly brought up the same unusual name in the course of discussion, describing Audley Reay as Maitland Council's health inspector who once lived - according to Neville - "next-door to the pigyards". A newspaper photo of Mr Reay at the time of his retirement in 1939.…

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