Pages from Newcastle Missing Years 8th print 2016

Introduction
In June 2010 I bought a collection of old glass and film negatives. I bought the photos, largely sight
unseen, on the expectation that many of the images were likely to be of the Hunter Region. From a brief
pre-auction inspection I could see the pictures dated from the 1880s to the 1950s.
The previous owner was a transport historian and enthusiast, the late Ken Magor, items from whose
extensive collections – I later learned – have found their way into museums around Australia.
I began to examine the collection and was amazed to discover what amounted to a real treasure trove
of pictures of Newcastle and the Hunter, chiefly concentrated on the years between 1934 and 1949. As
I scanned the negatives and studied the pictures it dawned on me that some of the photographs were
of such high quality they could only have been taken by professionals. Closer examination persuaded
me that many of them were actually taken by press photographers, almost certainly employees of The
Newcastle Morning Herald and The Newcastle Sun.
Former Sun photographer Ron Morrison, who started work as a cadet at the paper in 1949, recalled
working alongside such able colleagues as Milton Merrilees, Cec Piggott, Tom Hall and Archie Miller.
Inspecting some of these photos, Mr Morrison noted that they reflected the widely varying philosophies
and techniques of news photographers at the time.
Some of the pictures, for example, were highly posed, while others simply recorded events in a more
candid style. Mr Morrison recalled many workplace debates about these competing approaches. In his
opinion, the work of the “recorders” has in many cases better stood the test of time, especially because
the backgrounds in the photos have, over the years, taken on an unanticipated value.
Mr Morrison said many of the pictures were almost certainly not the work of staff photographers.
The liberal use of filters in some shots, he believed, suggested they were produced by contributors from
among the city’s studio photographers, some of whom did regular freelance work.
The pictures – whoever their creators might be – reveal a Newcastle that is both familiar and alien:
the Newcastle of my grandparents’ lifetimes. They show the city moving out of the Great Depression,
a little down at heel, but still full of pride, life and grandeur. They show a city stripped for war, with
air-raid shelters on the streets, tank traps on the beaches and warships in the harbour.
In many ways, the hard-bitten Newcastle revealed here may seem, paradoxically, a more confident
and self-reliant city than the one we know today.
The late Ken Magor, fireman and
transport enthusiast, photographed for
a Newcastle Herald article in 1984.
Mr Magor collected and preserved the
photographs that appear in this book.
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