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 […]
Colourful streamers stretched across the water and spectators lined the riverbanks, while the Federal Band played upbeat tunes and ladies served tea from a patriotically decorated tent. The impressive turnout was for the 1915 Carnival at the Horseshoe Bend of the Hunter River at Maitland, hosted by the West Maitland Water Brigade. The afternoon’s events […]
What does it take to make a bridge safe and sturdy? Perhaps it’s usually just good design and sound engineering. But in the case of Long Bridge in Maitland, where catastrophic floods are common, it has taken construction, reconstruction and rebuilding five times over the past 200 years. These 16 plans prepared by the NSW […]
In 1958 William Charles Hawke carried a heavy responsibility. Three and half years had passed since the catastrophic Hunter Valley flood, which had been among the worst natural disasters in Australia’s recorded history. Twenty-five people had died. As Secretary of the Hunter Valley Conservation Trust, tasked with coordinating the work to mitigate flood impacts, Hawke […]
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 […]
Constable Albert Wallbank was dedicated to three things: his family, his job and his adopted community of Dudley. Sadly, Albert (1887-1953) had not known his own father, because he died when Albert was 14 months old. Through his mother Sarah (neé Singleton) Albert descended from the convict William Singleton who arrived in New South Wales […]
Measuring a little over one metre tall this photographic portrait is of Charles Rasp (1846-1907), the man credited with finding silver at Broken Hill and establishing the now British-owned mining company BHP (Broken Hill Proprietary Company) in 1885. For decades the settler population at Broken Hill has celebrated Rasp as the city’s ‘founding father’, including […]
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