Travelling Through Time by sea, road and rail in Newcastle and the Hunter

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Introduction THIS, our tenth book – and the ninth in our series of volumes of collected photographs – is a miscellany with an emphasis on transport. It’s about travelling, on sea and land, in Newcastle and the Hunter from the days of sail to the 1970s. Included between these covers are some favourite images fortuitously obtained, along with many more from the original collection of material we acquired from the estate of the late Ken Magor in 2010. Since our first book, Newcastle, The Missing Years, appeared, we have collected many more photographs from many sources, always with the idea in mind of producing more books. It’s often the case that a collection of hundreds of photos or negatives will contain one or two real gems, and some of the images in this book are rarities of that kind, rescued from packages destined for the garbage, or resurrected from musty old boxes of mementoes. Like the photo on page 27 of Newcastle Ocean Baths, a standout among modest family snaps in a box of vintage negatives. And the pictures of Watt Street on pages 23 and 24-25, one of which was scanned from a magic lantern slide and the other saved from an ice cream container full of negatives on the verge of being thrown in a rubbish bin. Many people have helped us put together this collection. Barry Magor – Ken Magor’s son – has been extremely helpful. Our dear friend Daphne Barney has been kind and generous in providing access to the collection she amassed with her husband, the late Norm Barney. Former photographers like Ron Bell, and our mentors Ron and Liz Morrison, have entrusted us with important negatives and prints. Our friends from Maitland and District Historical Society, Keith Cockburn and Peter Smith in particular, have surprised us more than once with wonderful material. Book and memorabilia dealers Mark and Tony Burgess have supplied some rarities too, like the image on page 26 of the effigy of the Kaiser in Newcastle East during World War I, a standout print from a small collection otherwise undistinguished. The rare image of Samuel Dark on page 27 was an exciting find, kindly loaned by Wilf and Judy Redden. Other friends and helpers for this book include Anne Hudson – grand-daughter of the remarkable William Fraser – and Roberta Johnson, Peggy Paton and Bill Pitt. Mr Pitt provided us with Harold Boultwood’s negatives documenting the construction of Newcastle City Council’s “Roundhouse” administrative centre. Also thanks to our friend John Tipper, who created the Facebook group Rediscovered Newcastle to assist us in discussing our books and also discovering more about various photographs. This has proved more successful than we had anticipated and, as a consequence, we must also thank our numerous friendly helpers in that group who have solved many mysteries and corrected many errors through their cleverness and patience. Leon Garde, Robert Watson, Kevin Parsons, Margaret Bee, Ray Cross, Steve Shotton, Ian Wright, John Clarke, Ricky Walters and Steven Ward are just some of those whose sleuthing and background knowledge has saved me many hours of research. Again, we thank Alan Neader at NCP Printing for helping us have our books printed in Newcastle. It’s our ambition to support local businesses and jobs as much as we can, and NCP has helped us achieve this goal by providing professional high-quality service at a price that maintains the viability of our projects. Newcastle was a last great refuge for sail WHEN steamships were perfected, they inevitably put an end to the long era of sail as a means of trading commodities across the globe. But sailing ships lingered for decades, and circumstances made Newcastle one of the last of the great sailing ship ports. In the early years of the 20th century, the city often hosted as many as 80 sailing ships at once, almost all of them taking coal to the west coast ports of the Americas. Prevailing winds across the Pacific Ocean meant the sailing ships could catch the trades to Australia in the tropical latitudes, then fly back east on the wings of the strong winds in the lower latitudes. This free energy, coupled with the fact that the west coast American ports were hungry for coal to run their railroads and mines, gave sailing ships one last profitable niche. Unfortunately, waiting times for cargoes at Newcastle were very long, and that fact helped put more of a squeeze on the trade. During those golden sunset years of sail, Nobbys was a landmark known to many thousands of deepwater sailors to whom rounding that clumpy little headland was synonymous with reaching safety. Many sailors wrote about their travels, and numerous books contain interesting references to Newcastle during the years of the “west-coast coal trade”. One particularly good description is contained in the book Gipsy of the Horn, by Rex Clements, who arrived in Newcastle in 1903 in the Arethusa: The harbour was a wonderful sight by reason of the great number of deep-sea sailing-ships then in port. There were no less than a hundred and sixteen of them when we arrived, not counting steamers or coasters, and a grand show they made. Right away from Queen’s Wharf, just inside the Bluff, up past the Dyke they lay in an unbroken line as far as Waratah, or “Siberia,” as it was called, from its remoteness to everywhere else. In the Dyke, where we were lying, the ships lay three deep and there was a double row of them over on the other side at Stockton. Masts and yards were packed as thick as bristles on a hedgehog. During the day there was as much activity afloat as ashore, in consequence of the tremendous number of steam-launches, ferry-steamers, chandlers’ boats and ships’ gigs dodging about among the shipping. We only stayed at the Dyke a few days, then shifted down to Queen’s Wharf to discharge our cargo. Queen’s Wharf was the best berth in port and only a couple of minutes’ walk from Hunter Street, Newcastle’s principal thoroughfare. We found Newcastle a very lively and pleasant little town, with so many ships in harbour the atmosphere of the place was of the sea salty. There was one hotel, the Carrington, which was common property. It was the best-known hostelry in town, chiefly in consequence of the popularity of a bar-maid there – Nell, by name – who was often known to present half a sovereign to a hard-up customer. Two girls clowning in front of the Glebe bus, c1920 Greg Ray Newcastle Harbour as it was in the early 1900s: “during the day there was as much activity afloat as ashore”. 4 5
Lovely photo by Sam Hood of the French steel barque Ville de Havre near Nobbys. She was built in 1899 and made a number of eventful voyages to the Pacific before being torpedoed by a German U-boat off Ushant in 1916. Behind the ship the pilot vessel can be seen, and the taut line from the bow suggests she is being towed to sea. Zaara Street power station is visible in the right background. Since the power station was built in 1914, this photo may have been one of the last taken of this lovely ship before its wartime destruction. The American wooden schooner Minnie A. Caine, on American Independence Day, 1913. The ship was launched in Seattle in 1900 and carried lumber across the Pacific from the United States to Australia, often visiting Newcastle to load a return cargo of coal. By the 1920s these routes were no longer profitable for sailing ships and the vessel was laid up. It lingered until 1939 when it went ashore and was wrecked in the USA. 14 15 This photo, titled “Ready for Sea”, shows two ships moored side by side in Newcastle Harbour. The ship at right is the Steinbek – previously known as Durbridge.
Page 1: ©2018 Greg and Sylvia Ray No part
Page 5 and 6: The iron schooner Kate Tatham lies
Page 7 and 8: The photograph above, from the Ken
Page 9 and 10: Top: J. Wiggens’s Kaiai, photogra
Page 11 and 12: For many years Newcastle’s harbou
Page 13 and 14: A rather crowded Newcastle-bound do
Page 15 and 16: Two views of a rail accident at Woo
Page 17 and 18: Taxi rank outside the post office,
Page 19 and 20: Car accident at Lambton on June 1,
Page 21 and 22: Newcastle Railway Station’s refre
Page 23: Cottees cordial delivery by truck i

Travelling Through Time by sea, road and rail in Newcastle and the Hunter

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