Posts relating to the history of European migrant cultures that have arrived in Newcastle and the Hunter Region after 1770
By Louise Gale In Ross Edmonds’ post of 14 May 2019 on “Rob the Ranter” (1), he discusses the anonymous “Rob’s” contribution to the cultural life of Newcastle in 1861. Leo Butler’s article in the Newcastle Morning Herald in 1954 (2) similarly pays tribute to “Rob” for being amongst the small band of commentators “to … More Unmasking “Rob the Ranter”
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
On Tuesday 31 July 2019, the publication “They sent me north: Female Convicts in the Hunter” compiled by Mel Woodford with Jan Richards, edited by Elizabeth James from the Newcastle Family History Society (NFHS) was launched at the Lovett Gallery, Newcastle Library. The book has many contributions by the descendants of female convicts and members … More “They sent me North: Female Convicts in the Hunter” – Book Launch
By Ross Edmonds. The early decades of White colonisation in and around Newcastle were dominated by the struggle for survival. In these circumstances any form of culture was thin on the ground, nevertheless the desire of at least a few people for more than purely material gain had made itself felt as early as 1835. … More ‘Rob the Ranter’-Literary Life in Early Newcastle
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
Fraternal Societies – Secretive, Biblical and Fantastic Show-Offs By Dr Bob James [This is a the web version of a presentation delivered at the meeting of the Hunter Living Histories, 1 April 2019 at NewSpace] I’m supposed to start with a joke. This is the best I can do. [2] Please note my web site … More Fraternal Societies – Secretive, Biblical and Fantastic Show-Offs
Daguerreotype photography The daguerreotype was the first practical method of taking a lasting image and was available to the public in 1839. The process was invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a French artist and a chemist who based it on Joseph Nicéphore Niépce’s process of heliography (sun drawing), a French inventor, who is credited as the … More Ancestor to the modern ‘Selfie’
The State Library of Victoria holds a set of photographs by Elijah Hart (c.1821-1893) depicting Maitland (N.S.W) and which they date to 1857 located at http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/86377 Researcher Mr Peter F. Smith has provided evidence that all four images could not date from 1857, but probably date, at the earliest, from the 1864 to 1870 Maitland … More Maitland Flood Scenes Photographed by Elijah Hart (1864-1870?)
In 1996, the University accepted an offer of the entire extant archive of J. & A. Brown/Coal & Allied at the time of its sale to Rio Tinto Ltd. A 200+ page inventory and finding aid of the records of the famous J & A Brown/Coal and Allied firm was prepared and placed on the … More J. & A. Brown – Coal & Allied Archive
DALWOOD RAINFALL RECORDS 1865 – 1893 By Don Seton Wilkinson Colonial era weather records are few and far between. The Bureau of Meteorology considers that the Rainfall records from Dalwood, Branxton, NSW are the oldest accurate rainfall records in its collection. Between 1865 and 1885 the monthly rainfall was recorded by John Wyndham … More Selected Historic Records of Dalwood Vineyard