Fire and flood, the diametric poles of natural disaster, are recurring features of the Australian landscape. In this panoramic print, Tim Maguire suggests their all-encompassing and immersive effects, in which the world we know is consumed by elemental forces. The work was created for Maitland, a city which has been defined by dramatic floods […]
In 1965 the machines on the factory floor of Mercury Print at Maitland habitually clanged and whirred, as they printed the pages of this booklet, Historical Buildings of Maitland and District. It was just another print job for the busy local printer, who had been tasked with producing it for Maitland City Council, but the […]
It was a careful hand, using a fine-tipped paint brush, that expertly filled in the blocks of pastel watercolour paint on these architectural drawings in early 1933. It might have been the young architect Edward Boyd Scobie (1904-1988) who copied and coloured them at his drafting desk, in the offices of his father’s architectural firm at […]
Why move a city? Because it is repeatedly inundated by catastrophic floods. And how? That’s a question that Maitland never had the chance to answer. Situated on the floodplain of the Hunter River, where flood waters naturally accumulate during periods of heavy rainfall, the Maitland region has always been prone to flooding. The Wonnarua people, […]
Was it unbridled civic pride or simple commercial interest that inspired local dentist Wally Harkins to write and compile this ‘With Compliments’ booklet about West Maitland in 1922? What was in it for him? Providing an historical overview and singing the praises of Maitland and its surrounding district, the booklet includes photographs, descriptions, and brief […]
Computers, tablets and smart phones might be helpful, but many would agree there’s still nothing like scribbling down your thoughts using a pen and paper. In December 1872, when Maitland Mercury newspaper employee John Thompson ( – 1902) first opened this diary, he seems to have been thinking of using it in the coming year […]
Seven-year-old Norm Ryan probably never felt so ill when he was admitted to Maitland District Hospital on 18 April 1940.* His symptoms, which might have included a sore throat, swollen neck, rapid breathing and fever were recognised as diphtheria and the hospital immediately notified East Maitland’s health inspector Basil Volckman. The following day, he attended […]
When the young Birmingham artist Arthur Henry Fullwood (1863-1930) arrived in Maitland in 1886, what were his first impressions? Having recently migrated to the colony, Fullwood was commissioned by the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company in Sydney to travel to the Hunter Region and depict its principal town, Maitland. Among the various locations Fullwood visited in […]
As scientists forecast increasingly erratic weather events and debate ways to effectively reduce the impacts of climate change, it is equally important to look back and learn how communities in the past have dealt with catastrophic weather events such as floods. This flood level marker from Maitland, made in 1982 for installation on electricity poles […]
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