Artefacts - midcoaststories.com

Ghost sign: Lifebuoy soap, Wingham

In the alleyway beside the building at 89 Isabella Street, Wingham you will see a ghost sign. A ghost sign is a hand-painted advertisement on a brick wall from years gone-by. This particular advertisement is for Lifebuoy soap which was popular in Australia between the two world wars. Lifebuoy soap was introduced in 1894 as…

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Commonwealth Bank Mural – 176 Victoria Street, Taree

In 1956 the Commonwealth Bank commissioned Byram Mansell to design a mural for its new premises to be erected in Victoria Street, Taree. Born in Sydney in 1893, William Arthur “Byram” Mansell was trained as an engineer, but attended evening classes at Julian Ashton’s Art School. Seeking to further his experience, he travelled overseas and, whilst…

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Pixie O’Harris paintings

In 1957, renowned Australian illustrator and author, Pixie O’Harris, painted a series of 25 murals for the Children’s Ward of the Manning River District Hospital in Taree. The paintings depict scenes from children’s stories including Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood...

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Coded postcard message

This postcard was bought by a stamp collector in 2009. Can you imagine his surprise when he turned the postcard over and discovered the coded message written on the back? He thought it was a message between teenagers but this is not so...

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The well in the Art Gallery Carpark

On Friday 25 May 2018, as excavators were constructing a carpark for the Manning Regional Art Gallery in Macquarie Street, Taree, an old brick well was uncovered. Seeing the handmade bricks...

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Message in a bottle

On Monday afternoon, 18 November 1946, while the old residence of the Manning Ambulance Superintendent was being demolished to make way for a more modern building, a letter in a bottle was found...

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Paddle Steamer 'Manning'

Click clunk clunk splash, click clunk clunk splash, imagine 140 years ago walking around town, to school, to work and you hear this noise? Well this noise was the beat of the wheels of the Paddle Steamer ‘Manning’ as it made its way up the Manning River...

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Rare wooden grave marker

This rare example of a legible wooden grave marker was found behind a shed at the Great Lakes Museum in 2014. It once marked the grave of 14 year old Joseph Edwin Hadley...

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A Chevrolet truck, a fence and a way to the Wingham Show

In the early 1900s the owners of one of the first trucks in Strathcedar, was Royden and Florence Newell. This truck was used for the mail run…

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One of the first trucks and mail run in Strathcedar

One of the first trucks in Strathcedar was a 1926 Chevrolet with a wooden cab. It was purchased by Royden Robert Newell and wife Florence, and was used to take their cream cans to the Wingham Factory…

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Taree’s Big Oyster, 100 Manning River Drive

On Friday 30 March 1990, the NSW Premier, Nick Greiner, opened Taree’s newest tourist attraction – the Big Oyster…

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The Blue Cross - Taree landmark

The Blue Cross atop the tower of St John’s Anglican Church in Victoria Street has long been prominent on the Taree skyline...

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Tahlee House

Nestled in the grounds of Tahlee Ministries near Carrington is the beautiful, heritage-listed ‘Tahlee House’. It was built in 1826 by the Australian Agricultural Company...

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The Flag Dress

Amelia Ellis was a gifted needlewoman with her own business in Tinonee at the time of World War 1...

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Gathang Guuyang (Gathang Canoe)

On 20 May 2012 at Bungwahl, for the first time in over 150 years the guuyang builders, led by Steve Brereton, a Warrimay (Worimi) man, with strong connections to country and culture took a canoe from Gathang country…

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The Brown Family at the Bight Cemetery

Towards the back of the Bight Cemetery is a headstone that recognises the deaths of four members of the Brown family. What is the story that lies behind this stone?

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Hills of Hate - a "lost film"

“Hills of Hate” published by Angus and Robertson in 1925 was the debut novel of Australian author E V Timms. It tells the story of two feuding bush families...

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The Cloud Wallaby

The Cloud Wallaby is a fable written and illustrated by Pixie O’Harris. It was published in The School Magazine in August 1949. It goes something like this...

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Our Manning River: Industrial Heritage of Brown's Creek (Crooked Creek), Taree

The creek has a long industrial history with ties to quarrying, railways and shipbuilding to name a few...

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Olaf Harris – a quiet achiever

Olaf Harris was a younger brother of the well-known children’s illustrator and author, Pixie O’Harris. He executed seven of the twenty-five paintings…

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101 Bungay Road, Wingham

In the back shed of 101 Bungay Road Wingham is a child’s handprint pressed into the concrete slab with the date 17-7-54. After watching episodes of Restoration Home during Covid19 social distancing measures, the hunt was on to work out whose print…

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This too shall pass...tepees and Covid19

In March 2020, Australians joined the rest of the world in practising social distancing techniques to slow the spread of the global pandemic Covid19. It was during this time that a series of driftwood shelters appeared along Old Bar Beach...

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Emmeline Ann Everingham - a right to vote

In the Port Macquarie Museum is an ‘Elector’s Right Residential Qualification’ for Emmeline Ann Everingham. In 1902 the Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act giving women over the age of 21 the right to vote...

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Mudlarking in the Wallamba River

For decades Graham Boyd dived along the riverbanks of the Wallamba River searching for artefacts…

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Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills

These little amber bottles, discovered in the mudbanks of the Wallamba River, were once found in most Australian households particularly from the late 1890s to 1940s…

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A forgotten pewter plate

An intriguing lost family story is that of my seven times great grandparents Sarah Batt and James Gaite who married 6 September 1767 in Flax-Bourton, Somerset, England…

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Gold Freemason’s pin

A tiny article of jewellery passed down through my family is a gold pin. On one side is a Freemason’s sign and on the other the Lord’s prayer - so tiny you can hardly make out the words…

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A few of my favourite things

As a little girl growing up at Shalimar my grandmother gave me a cane chair…

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Postcards from the muddy trenches of France

On 10 January 1916, three brothers from the Gorton family - Tom, Fred and Herbert - enlisted in WWI…

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William 'George' Sawyer and his 1934 Dodge Tourer

After the Dodge was sold a letter arrived at Connie’s home together with a photograph of the restored vehicle...

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Joseph Graham’s Dinghy

Joseph Daniel Graham was born on Cabbage Tree Island in 1882 and 1965 aged 83 years. He lived on the island all of his life following…

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The Mustard Gas Men: Ross Ashley Bryan

A photograph of a carved rock inscription outside a disused railway tunnel reveals a Taree man’s involvement in a top secret operation in WWII…

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Wilsie Wilson: Champion Sculler

At the age of 23, Wilsie Wilson entered into the single ladies’ scull competition at the Croki Regatta held on Boxing Day 1928…

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The Report Card

In 1954, Walter Horsburgh’s mother received an “urgent and highly confidential” letter from her son’s teacher…

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Coopernook Bridge

The Lansdowne River, which passes through Coopernook, was a major service route for steamers moving between the Manning River and Lansdowne. In June 1885 the first Coopernook Bridge opened…

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SS Urana

The Urana proved a saviour for the crew of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving boat in February 1926 when…

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Pietro Muscio’s diary

In the twilight of Pietro Antonio Muscio’s life he sat down to write his ‘little story’ over a fortnight in November 1922. Using a fountain pen, exercise book and in English (his second language) he wrote his life story in 43 pages…

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Clyde Smith and the SS Reliance

Following the war, Clyde returned to Tea Gardens where he worked on the passenger steamer “SS Reliance” owned by Thurlow and Co. He held both an engineer’s ticket and master’s ticket so at times captained the ship…

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Captain Cromarty buried at Carrington Cemetery

During a storm in 1838, a steamer lost its smaller boat which was stranded at One Mile Beach. Cromarty was asked to retrieve the boat and row it back to Port Stephens…

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Alfred Basham and Jane Middlemiss

In the Angel Close Historic Cemetery at Forster lies the remains of Alfred Basham and Jane Middlemiss. While these two youths were not related nor did they die together they were nevertheless connected...

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William Baird

This photograph from the 1960s shows the headstone of William Baird at the Angel Close Historic Cemetery in Forster. William Baird was born in 1851 in Sydney…

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George Garlick Godwin

George Garlick Godwin was born around 1803 in Wiltshire, England. He was given a life sentence for pig stealing and transported to Australia on the convict ship ‘Burrell’ in 1830...

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Thomas Buckle

On the corner of Little Street and Memorial Drive, Forster, is a bench which was unveiled in 1949 outside the former residence of Thomas Buckle…

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The mysterious wedding photo

This wedding photo, stored at the Batemans Bay Heritage Museum, was donated by the Dunne Family and is described as a 1920s wedding...

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“Coast Town” – A Prizewinning Film

In 1939 the Society invited entries to find the best 16mm film made in Australia and which referenced Australian life or history. This was the first national…

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Archaeological dig at Taree Police Station

In December 2018 an archaeological excavation began at the site of the Taree Police Station. The dig uncovered the remains of four cesspits…

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Purfleet Gum Leaf Band

Gum leaf playing is deeply linked with the culture of First Australians who have always played this unique instrument. It is believed gum leaves were used in hunting, signalling, rituals, as spiritual instruments and even toys...

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The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet began life in the workshops of John Fowler & Co in 1910. Of course, it wasn’t known as the Green Hornet then...

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Lincoln Brick Works, Wingham

When travelling between Wingham and Taree it is hard to miss the landmark brick chimneys of the Lincoln Brick Works...

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Wingham Memorial Town Hall Clock

The clock was made and installed by Mr Arthur Louis Franklin. Born in England, Franklin had been employed in the physics department of the University of Birmingham...

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A very old and very good ginger beer recipe

In our family homemade ginger beer and Christmas go hand in hand. Recently I came across an old ginger beer recipe at the NSW State Library...

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Survey Reference Trees

These old survey trees were an early way of marking the landscape to define roads, Crown Lands and property allotments...

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The Northern Champion Newspaper: the first edition

In 1912, Taree was served by one local newspaper, the Manning River Times. But things were about to change …

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William Augustus Fay: journalist

Of the seven original shareholders of the Northern Champion Printing and Publishing Company Limited registered by David Cowan in 1912, one seems an odd fit...

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William Boles and James Henry Bolster: a tale of two architects

The long-awaited Manning River District Hospital was designed by Sydney architects, Bolster and Hotson. In December 1888, James Bolster visited Taree...

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A bump on the head

This boy has a fairly large head. It is 21½ in circumference by 13 inches in coronal measurement. It is of good quality brain…

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Wingham’s Canary Island Date Palms

Rows of Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canierensis) grace Bent Street, Central Park and the corner of Isabella and Wynter Streets in Wingham...

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Crowdy Head Lightkeeper’s Cottage

Beside the Crowdy Head Lighthouse are the remains of the lightkeeper’s cottage. William John Smith, a Taree contractor, began building the lighthouse and dwelling in 1878...

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Croki punt crossing site

In 1887, a punt service was established to connect Ferry Road in Croki with Ruprechts Road on Mitchells Island...

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Tiny the Terrier and the Amato Family of Tuncurry

A charming 1988 film clip in the National Film and Sound Archive captures Tiny the Terrier, a clever dog from Tuncurry who greeted the postman each day...

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A Ghostly Sign on the Wingham Road

By 1944, Taree had long since boasted a public hospital. Wingham, however, and its Upper Manning catchment, was reliant on a private hospital...

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