Category: Free Settlers

Posts relating to post convict era history of Newcastle and Hunter Region

Life of George Muddle – Diary of an Ordinary Person in the Hunter Valley of the 1840s-1850s

August 15, 2019

  The Dudley Museum Copy of George Muddle’s Diary For the past twenty years, the Dudley Museum has held a xerox copy of a manuscript diary kept by George Muddle (1823-1889) documenting, in the main, his life as a servant worker on Charles Boydell’s estate Camerallyn, located between the Paterson and Allyn Rivers in the … More Life of George Muddle – Diary of an Ordinary Person in the Hunter Valley of the 1840s-1850s

Miss Hayes and The Great Northern Hotel Album

April 8, 2019

Agnes Bridget/Beatrice Mary Hayes was born in 1853 in Tipperary, Ireland. She came to Australia on 29th April 1854 as an assisted immigrant on the “Merchantman” with her parents Cornelius Hayes and Honora Hayes (nee Kennedy), with three siblings; Mary Ann, Honoria, and Joseph. By 1856 the Hayes family were living in Maitland N.S.W and … More Miss Hayes and The Great Northern Hotel Album

An Unidentified Hunter Valley Settler’s Manuscript circa 1832-1833

May 17, 2018

AN UNIDENTIFIED HUNTER VALLEY MANUSCRIPT CIRCA 1832-1833 Introduction This manuscript account of a settler’s life in the Hunter Region was donated to the University of Newcastle’s Archives by Julie Baird, at the Newcastle Regional Museum in June 2008. The manuscript, which has now been dated as being penned during 1832, and at least July 1833 … More An Unidentified Hunter Valley Settler’s Manuscript circa 1832-1833

Healthcare in Newcastle 1817-1860

December 1, 2017

HEALTHCARE IN NEWCASTLE 1817-1860 By Dr Ann Hardy (Presented at The Hunter Postgraduate Medical Institute one-day seminar at HMRI on 11 November, 2017.) Newcastle hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in Australia, founded in 1817, however limited primary sources have survived relating to healthcare. To commemorate 200 years of the Newcastle Hospital a secondary … More Healthcare in Newcastle 1817-1860

Newcastle in 1889 (Illustrated Sydney News 27 June 1889)

April 7, 2017

The Illustrated Sydney News, is a colonial newspaper that, during the 19th century, would provide news features and articles on the progress of various townships and cities across New South Wales. In some cases these features were accompanied with a spectacular engraving or lithograph. HOW WERE THEY MADE? What fascinates us, is besides the wonderful … More Newcastle in 1889 (Illustrated Sydney News 27 June 1889)

View from Stockton to Newcastle (Illustrated Sydney News 16 February 1867)

April 7, 2017

      This extraordinary view is based upon a photograph taken around 1865. See: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/1990-mulimbahhouseeje.pdf A discussion of this engraving and its original source photograph from circa 1865 is here: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2019/03/07/earliest-photograph/ Gionni Di Gravio University Archivist & Chair, Hunter Living Histories