Joe Frost (1974-) painted this work for the exhibition View of Maitland from the riverbank (with apologies to Jan Vermeer and View of Delft), shown at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) in 2006. Alongside eleven other commissioned artists, Frost painted a view of Maitland on a canvas the same size as that used by the […]
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 […]
It may have been painted 340 years later and on the other side of the world, but Michael Fitzjames (1948-) has channelled the spirit of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s famous View of Delft (1663) in View of Maitland from the riverbank (2006). Like Vermeer, Fitzjames has split his canvas into three horizontal bands of […]
A clean, orderly, and peaceful facility with smokeless chimneys – it is so picturesque that even a family of ducks float happily nearby. The Pasminco Smelter, also known as Cockle Creek Smelter or ‘The Sulphide,’ was a zinc and lead smelter covering approximately 190 hectares at the northern end of Lake Macquarie in Boolaroo. Founded […]
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 […]
These leather-bound ledgers have sat silently on dusty shelves for over 100 years, but those who choose to open their covers and read their pages will hear a rowdy multitude of voices coming forward from 1862 to 1912 – of those who lived in and governed the Maitland region for 50 years. Diligently transcribed by […]
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, […]
Several ladies were in attendance at the Maitland Technical College on the evening of 4 March 1913. It was one of the first meetings of the newly formed Maitland District Scientific and Historical Research Society, and the members might have been surprised to see so many women active in a domain from which they had […]
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 […]
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