In June 2010, Newcastle Herald journalist Greg Ray bought 20 kilograms of glass and film negatives at an on-line auction.
To his amazement, the boxes of old negatives – when scanned – revealed a treasure-trove of professional quality images of Newcastle and the Hunter in the 1930s and 1940s.
Even more amazingly, it appeared that some of the photos were almost certainly pictures “lost” decades ago from the city’s newspaper archives.
Air-raid shelters in Hunter Street, torpedo-damaged ships in Newcastle Harbour, Spitfires at Williamtown and Newcastle’s riotous celebration of VP Day in 1945 are just some of the unforgettable images to emerge from this cache of material.
Greg and his wife Sylvia have restored the images and published a selection of them in a book: Newcastle, the Missing Years.
Images from the Launch – Courtesy of Mr Bill Hillier
