Events - midcoaststories.com

Croki Regatta

In its heyday around 1900, Croki was a thriving village. Croki Regatta, an annual event, was a great drawcard. Some people paraded in their finest while others looked upon it simply as an excuse to let off steam. Boat races and competitive swimming featured, while a range of…

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Message from the Sky

On the morning of Thursday 23 August 1928 a light plane was seen to approach Taree from the south, turn along Victoria Street and jettison a small bag, weighted with sand, which landed close to the War Memorial (then located at the intersection of Victoria and Manning Streets)...

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Those rascally rabbits: Broughton Island rabbit experiment

Audiences tend to love fictional rabbits such as Thumper or Bugs Bunny, but in Australia rabbits have caused widespread environmental and economic devastation since their introduction in the 1850s. Governments have spent millions of dollars fighting these pests. In 1906, Broughton Island became the scene of one such attempt. Microbiologist Dr Danysz from the…

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Duel to the death: Copeland Tops

For a week in 1929, three camps of timber getters and gold diggers near Copeland Tops lived in a state of fear. Then at dusk on 9 October their fears came true when James Herbert Curran, 47, came seeking Alfred Lawrence Edwards, 23...

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The wrecking of the Empress of India

The schooner, Empress of India, was travelling from Port Macquarie to Sydney loaded with sawn hardwood when she encountered fierce weather. Captain Peter Williams sheltered in Cape Hawke Bay but during the night the winds were so violent that the ship started leaking and was in danger of being driven ashore...

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Air Pageant and Aviator’s Ball – Taree 1930

In the 1920s the fledgling aviation industry was thriving and progressive towns wanted an aerodrome. Thus it came to pass that a portion of Taree Showground was combined with adjoining land donated by Mr H Beeton to provide Taree’s first in-town aerodrome. The official opening was celebrated with an air pageant and aviator’s ball on 7…

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First television in Taree

Peter and Dawn Calvin were proud owners of the first television in Taree. Owners of Calvin’s Electrical at 70 Manning Street (now 34 Manning Street), Taree they proudly showed off this technology to the Taree community in the early 1960s. Living behind the shop, they offered the television for everyone to enjoy. Dawn remembers that…

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Sad tales of Glenthorne Public School’s teachers

Glenthorne Public School operated for 63 years with nine teachers serving the small community. Of these teachers, four suffered tragic events while serving in their roles. William Percy was a popular teacher who loved playing cricket. He passed his pupil teacher’s examination at 13 and worked his way to full teacher. He taught at Glenthorne…

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The Great Race

In 1847 after two years of crafting, John Nicholson a shipbuilder of the Manning River, completed the 270 ton barque Fanny Fisherwhich had been commissioned by (William) Henry Fisher. The ship was named after Henry’s daughter. Coincidentally, in another Manning River shipyard, a barque of similar proportions, Rosetta Joseph, was being built at the same…

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The Wrecking of the Urana

It was just after 9pm on the night of 31 August 1937 when the Postmaster at Old Bar noticed the impending disaster – ship’s lights looming out of the fog and heading towards submerged rocks just off shore. The Urana, a steamer carrying 100 tons of coal from Newcastle en route to the Macleay River,…

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The Brick Machine Case

On 28 September 1927, the court house in the small town of Stroud was abuzz with anticipation. Albert Herbert Thompson was to be tried for the fraudulent appropriation of money from two brothers, local dairy farmers Andrew and Anthony Jacob Weismantel...

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Murder at Monkerai

Frank Rudkin was married to Jessie, a woman some 20 years his junior. On the morning of 5 July 1921, a neighbour’s son, found Frank’s body lying...

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When Hollywood came to Gloucester

In the 1930s visiting the cinema was a favourite pastime. Most films shown in Australia at that time were Hollywood productions and, in 1935, the NSW government took steps to promote the Australian film industry...

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Tinonee Ghost

Just imagine you are roaming around an empty paddock when you hear a mysterious sound, you turn around and come face-to-face with a … GHOST???!!!

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Empire Day in Taree

Empire Day was first celebrated on 24 May 1902 after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901. The day was celebrated across the British Empire with parties, festivals, and patriotic dances. But Empire Day wasn’t entirely normal...

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Taree gaslight foot races

“And in first place we have A. Worthing with M. Brislane close behind, followed by R. Tonkin”. Imagine the atmosphere of hundreds of people trying to find a spot to watch the Taree Gaslight Races...

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The Bungay Ghost

In December 1887, Mr R Cameron, a highly respected resident of Bungay, was riding home from Wingham one evening when a ghost in black rode up to him...

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Karuah River Mystery

In 1917 a young man was found at Karuah River unable to hear, speak or move his legs. Stories began circulating that he had encountered a ghost…

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Premonition at the Australian Hotel

Mr Cregg, a well-known tea traveller, spent the night at Wingham’s Australian Hotel on Friday the 8 November 1901 where he had a vivid dream…

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How 'Poitrel' brought a touch of glamour to Taree

Poitrel was a chestnut stallion, a racehorse, best known as the 1920 winner of the Melbourne Cup...

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Record-breaking cricket partnership

This is the story of two close friends who on the 9th March 1940 made cricket history...

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Redex, The World’s Toughest Car Trials

Redex Trials were novel with 200 amateur and pro drivers circumnavigating Australia in a contest. Bill Nelson was always passionate about cars and talked his mate into...

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The tragedy of SS 'Macleay'

The beauty of Little Broughton Island belies the tragedy of the wrecking of the North Coast Steam Navigation Company’s S.S. ‘Macleay’ on 11 October 1911…

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Fire at the Bellevue Hotel, Tuncurry

In the early hours of 13 July 1954, a fire started within the Bellevue Hotel at Tuncurry…

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Young boy mauled by shark at Forster

A real case of jaws in our very own small town? One Friday afternoon in January 1944, a 14 year old boy named Keith Weir was out with his friends surfing at Main Beach, Forster…

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Taree Hospital Christmas Tree

For over 32 years the pine tree at the Manning Base Hospital was lit up as a Christmas tree for everyone to enjoy...

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Level Crossing Smash, Wingham 1956

On 7th January 1956, around 9.50pm, the southern bound North Coast Mail train No. 14 collided with a 1950 Studebaker utility, on the Wingham-Taree Road level crossing…

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Blackout Practice

Blackouts were considered the best form of defence against possible night time bombardment and practice drills were initially held in Sydney…

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The joy and tragedy of young Michael Dunn

Late in the afternoon on Thursday 23 July 1953 a four year old Taree boy, Michael Dunn, was reported missing at Coomba Park (Wallis Lake)…

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The Great White Train

The Great White Train steamed into Taree in the early hours of Thursday 2 September 1926...

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Bob Hope in Taree ‘Thanks for the memories’

On Monday evening 14 August 1944, Chief Observer of the Laurieton Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC), Mrs I M Grierson, was on duty when she saw a Catalina flying boat make a forced landing…

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Taree’s Volunteer Air Observers Corps

Tom Dyball was not only science master at Taree High School during World War II, he was Zone Commandant of the Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC) in Taree…

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The McAskill Murders, Booral Wharf

In January 1878, the Booral Wharf store was alight and there was no sign of the wharfinger Alan McAskill or his wife Mary...

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Fire in Victoria Street, Taree, 1905

Shortly before 7 pm on 29 November 1905, fire broke out in Victoria Street, Taree. It started in a small room at Donnelly’s Red Colonnade Store...

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The kindness of fishermen: Broughton Island

Broughton Island’s pristine environment has long been popular with fishermen. In the 1880s Italian fishermen established a small settlement on the island followed later by Greek fishermen who arrived around WW1...

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Married in a Military Hospital

A corporal on the ‘seriously ill’ list married his fiancé Sister Elsie ‘Billie’ Heyne in the Yaralla Military Hospital, Sydney on 30 June 1942...

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Massacre at Belbora

In 2017, the University of Newcastle began documenting massacres of Aboriginal people at the hands of early settlers. One such massacre occurred at Belbora…

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Spanish Flu in the Manning Valley

The pneumonic influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919 had a devastating impact on the world population, leaving more casualties in its wake than the Great War…

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Sewing Lessons at Mitchell’s Island Public School

The year was 1973 and on Thursdays, sewing was on the agenda at Mitchell’s Island Public School (for girls only of course!)...

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“Tall Timbers” a tale of treachery and deceit

The 1937 film “Tall Timbers” directed by Ken Hall featured many scenes shot in the vicinity of Stroud and Gloucester on the Mid North Coast of NSW…

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A Film Star visits Taree!

The Boomerang Theatre in Taree had the honour of hosting the first official NSW screening of the much publicised Australian film “Tall Timbers”…

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The 1956 Olympic Torch

On 17 November 1956, forty six fit, local men relayed the Olympic Torch from Kew in the North to Burrell Creek in the South of the region, a grand total of 46 miles...

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Zulu – the dark horse

The 1881 Melbourne Cup remains famous for one of the most genuine surprises in the race’s history. Zulu, who was listed in the betting at 100/1...

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A Country Romance

"A Country Romance", this was the newspaper headline when reporting the marriage of Phyllis Hope Lockyer and Arthur Finlay in Glenn Innes in April 1926. The event was widely reported because of the Bride’s age: she was only fourteen...

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New Years Day 1911

The Christmas holiday: traditionally a time for families to get together. Such was the case for Bartholomew Lyons...

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Santa Claus at Tahlee House

Two days before Christmas 1927, an article appeared in NSW newspapers entitled ‘Santa Claus at Tahlee House’. It was a story set on Christmas Eve 1832 during the time when…

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Grandfather’s birthday

Writers like Steele Rudd and Norman Lindsay have made much of the humorous side of Australian rural life in the late nineteenth century. A counterpoint to this humour was the hardship and tragedy endured and overcome by the Australians of that era…

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Lone shark fatality in Manning River

The Manning River’s only recorded shark fatality occurred in 1863 of seventeen year old James Brown. It was a hot January evening...

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Our Manning River: Manning River Rowing Club

The Manning River Estuary is much-loved as a place for recreation, which in turn brings the ecology of the river alive to boating enthusiasts and promotes health and well-being…

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Our Manning River: 1978 Flood

Midday, Monday 20 March 1978 the Manning River at Taree hit a flood peak level of 5.45m just 15cms below the record flood of 1929...

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Breckenridge Scandal

This painful scandal played out across NSW newspapers in 1899. Thomas Breckenridge was a storekeeper at Forster who worked with his sister Mary. When Thomas’ fiancée Jane Ann Benson became pregnant...

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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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Mysterious Suicide in Taree Park

On the afternoon of Wednesday 9 May 1923, a tragedy unfolded in Taree Park. A visitor, Phillip William Osborne, committed suicide by ingesting strychnine…

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Tales from Old Bar Airstrip “Mystery Island”

In September 1936, Australian film star Brian Abbott, leading lady Jean Laidley and a crew of 30 set off for Lord Howe Island on the SS Morinda to film the movie ‘Mystery Island’…

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The Famous “All Blacks” visit Taree

In 1920 the New Zealand rugby union team, the “All Blacks” undertook a promotional tour of Australia in order to raise the profile of rugby union…

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Albert George Chapman – Champion Rower

In 1886, the Balmain Working Men’s Rowing Club established itself just a few hundred metres from the Balmain Rowing Club. In these early days a working man…

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The trials of getting to school

Boats, horses, bicycles and a big red bus just to get to school...

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Boyle Holden: Last of the bullockies

In 1959 Andrew “Boyle” Holden drove a team of bullocks across the newly opened Forster-Tuncurry Bridge. Not only was Boyle one of the last bullockies of the Mid North Coast…

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Camping at Black Head

In the 1960s, families packed their camping gear and spent the school holidays at Black Head. My dad spared no expense in purchasing a two-pole canvas tent with grass as our floor…

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Who Killed Dot Everett?

On the morning of Sunday 28 November 1937, the body of “Dot” Everett was found in the grounds of the Broughton Church of England Boys’ School in Newcastle…

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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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Christmas on the Wallamba

The only decorations were puddings hanging on strings around the verandah, and a bunch of wild Christmas bells in the lounge…

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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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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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Robert Clyde Smith and the Dalfram Strike

No. 4 Jetty at Port Kembla was the scene of a shocking fatality on 7 November 1938. A young man from Tea Gardens, Robert Clyde Smith, was crushed to death while unloading pig-iron (wrought iron) on to a ship bound for Japan…

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Formation of the QUOTA Club of Taree

On Friday night the 20th August 1947 a meeting was called in the CWA rooms to form a Quota Club of Taree…

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Miss Vera Abbott’s Cricket Team

In 1933, Miss Vera Abbott was Wingham’s candidate for the Upper Manning Agricultural and Horticultural Association’s Popular Girl Competition…

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The Tragedy of Margaret Gill Croker

Margaret Dunn was married to Alfred Croker for just one year when tragedy occurred in 1932. On the evening of Friday 7 May, Clarence Bonney was riding his Norton motorcycle to a dance at Failford Hall…

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William Green’s disappearing act

Family stories say that the marriage between William and Laurell became unstable. One sad tale describes Laurell stripping naked…

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Shirley Morris - Biripi Activist

Biripi woman Shirley Mitchell was born in 1933 and grew up on Purfleet Aboriginal Reserve. When welfare authorities came to Purfleet to take Aboriginal children with fairer skin...

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Rex Morris

Rex Morris was born at Purfleet in 1953 to Shirley and Rex. He was just four years old when welfare authorities came to Taree with the intention of forcibly removing children...

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Taree’s First Eisteddfod

In the early years of the 20th century, musical festivals were very much in vogue. One such festival had been successfully held in Taree in 1912...

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W.A.S.P.S. "Food for the Fighting Forces"

The outbreak of WW2 led to a significant loss of rural manpower as men enlisted in the armed services. To ensure the agricultural sector could still function effectively...

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Manning District Ambulance Service

In 1934 Taree citizens approached the Newcastle Ambulance Committee to establish a district ambulance service. Newcastle agreed and donated an ambulance and £100...

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Sergeant Ian Affleck

Ian Affleck thrived at the Black Head Surf Life Saving Club; achieving his Junior Qualifying Certificate in 1933 aged 14, his Bronze Medallion in 1935...

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Tragedy Strikes Dumaresq Island

Speedboats from the festival swarmed the island as the plane continued to burn. Eric Henshaw and John Paine were among them. They scrambled up the bank...

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William Smith: Old Bar Defender

Bill was tasked with protecting the strategically located Old Bar Airstrip. Airplanes used to stop at Old Bar for refuelling and repairs...

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The first car to reach Barrington Tops

In 1923, the ‘Barrington Tops League’ formed to progress the idea of establishing a health and tourism resort, similar to the Blue Mountains, for “ordinary tourists” but especially for the large industrial population of the Lower Hunter...

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Fly the flag

In 2004, Greater Taree City Councillors voted against flying the Aboriginal flag outside the Council building, eight votes to four...

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First divine service on Barrington Tops

To a congregation of 15 scientists and a dog, Rev W Cochrane conducted the first divine service ever held on the Barrington Tops on 25 January 1925...

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Italian POWs in the MidCoast

Many have heard about the 30,000 Australians who were held overseas as prisoners of war (POWs) during WW2, but what is known of the international POWs held here in the MidCoast?...

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Marlee-Bobin Ghost

In November 1903, several Marlee-Bobin residents reported contact with a supernatural being at Marlee Cemetery. The apparition was in leg-irons and they could hear the clatter of chains as the ghost crossed the road. The residents...

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Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing Troupe

In the first half of the twentieth century, a popular attraction at country shows was the boxing tent…

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WW2 Fundraiser for Greece

In recognition of the heroic efforts of Greek forces in support of the Allies in WW2, a “Greek Day” was proclaimed...

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Frederick Trad: Australian-Lebanese Digger

Frederick Trad was born in Barhalioun, Lebanon, in 1922 and migrated to Australia as a child with his parents, Calil and Carolina. Upon their arrival, the family settled at Killabakh Creek...

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Taree Park Sports Gathering 1939

Excitement filled the air at Taree Public School on the morning of Friday, 17 November 1939, as 700 students gathered for the District School Sports Carnival...

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“Top Town” Taree

For 23 weeks in 1953, “Top Town” fever gripped the population of Taree. Organised by the Daily Telegraph and broadcast by 25 radio stations across New South Wales, “Top Town”...

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Skeleton found on Old Bar Beach

In 1934, a skeleton was found in the sand at Old Bar, between the surf club and the river entrance...

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IRA murder: a Gloucester link

Dr Sinclair Finlay was born at Brackley House in County Cavan, Ireland – the same house where, decades later, his older brother met a violent end...

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Lost on Kiwarric Mountain

In October 1922, six-year-old Sydney McCarthy arrived with his mother from Sydney to holiday with his grandparents, Mr and Mrs George W.R. Green, at Kundibakh. After the long train and car journey, his mother was resting when Sydney wandered from the property...

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Bring Back the Flying Boats!

The Manning River was not only important for shipping … it once hosted flying boats...

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