© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Newcastle

Read more about the article Bridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 3

Bridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 3

In the early days of European settlement in the colony of New South Wales, the only way to travel from Sydney to the "Coal River" - later to be Newcastle - was by sea. And that was fine by the colonial government, since the northern settlement was chiefly valued as a remote prison camp for the worst of the colony's convicts. Escaping overland from the Coal River was at first dangerous and often fatal. Newcastle was a punishment camp for the worst prisoners Over the years some convicts did manage to find their way back to…

Continue ReadingBridging the Hawkesbury River: Part 3
Read more about the article Vickers-Comsteel, Newcastle, NSW, in 1929
Photos from the Bank Notes article about Comsteel.

Vickers-Comsteel, Newcastle, NSW, in 1929

Industrial and commercial newsletters and in-house publications are a rich source of fascinating historical material, often of a type that can't be found anywhere else. One of my favourite Australian business journals is Bank Notes, the Journal of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. I pick up copies and bound volumes from time to time, mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, and love to comb through them for great old photos and articles about many aspects of Australian life. Mostly the articles are written by bank staff members, and the photos come from many sources. A copy…

Continue ReadingVickers-Comsteel, Newcastle, NSW, in 1929
Read more about the article Newcastle’s great days of sail
Nobbys Headland, Newcastle, NSW, c1900

Newcastle’s great days of sail

WHEN steamships were perfected, they inevitably put an end to the long era of sail as a means of trading commodities across the globe. But sailing ships lingered for decades, and circumstances made Newcastle, NSW, one of the last of the great sailing ship ports. In the early years of the 20th century, the city often hosted as many as 80 sailing ships at once, almost all of them taking Australian coal to the west coast ports of the Americas. Prevailing winds across the Pacific Ocean meant the sailing ships could catch the trades to Australia…

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