© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

NSW

Read more about the article A dip in the shark tank
Photo by Ron Morrison.

A dip in the shark tank

July 24, 2021 Opinion by Greg Ray IF you were a little confused by the recent Federal Court decision on the legality of the NSW Government’s penalty clauses preventing the Port of Newcastle competing with Sydney for container traffic, then you aren’t alone. I’m a little confused too. I hope I’m not in contempt of court when I say I find it surprising to read the statement by Justice Jagot that “No private operator of the Port of Newcastle, acting rationally, could have satisfied itself that in the reasonably foreseeable future a container terminal at the…

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Read more about the article Church Walk Park: a Newcastle inner city haven

Church Walk Park: a Newcastle inner city haven

For decades, as I drove most days along King Street to work in Newcastle city, I'd stop at the lights at Darby Street and admire the wild-looking piece of steep land on the south eastern side of the intersection, wondering who owned it and hoping it would never be torn apart. Although I admired this little piece of land, I never bothered to find out anything about it, and I never tried to walk through it, assuming it was probably a private garden. Recently I discovered that this lovely spot is actually a public park. Its…

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Read more about the article 1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook
A rural police residence, possibly Kempsey. Perhaps the home of Alfred James Burrows.

1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook

Dick, Caroline, Magpie Billy, Maria, Bullseye Tommy, Jerry, Nancy, Jenny, George, Selina, Kitty, Jim Crow, Emily, Ebony, Topsy, Tiger, Old Billie, Dolly, Mary Anne & child, Emma, Spider Tom, Nellie, Alice & baby . . . Flicking through an antique pocket notebook that once belonged to a police constable in western NSW, I was arrested by the page headed: "Blankets 1894". In a notebook otherwise full of shopping lists, maudlin poetry, betting notes for horse races, lists of belongings at the scenes of lonely rural deaths and descriptions of wanted horse thieves, this unassuming list struck…

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