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  • Bohnock Literary Institute Hall
    Before 1925 the people of Bohnock had to travel long distances to attend dances and other night-time functions. After many years of discussing building a community hall, the dream finally came to fruition in 1925. Local identities, Vic and Ettie Carle, generously donated a corner section of their property on Bohnock Road for the purpose…

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  • George Albert Chapman
    George Albert Chapman was born in Raymond Terrace and in 1880, aged 23, he walked up the beach to the Wallamba looking for a place to settle…

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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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  • Taree War Memorial Clock
    The Taree War Memorial Clock stands in Fotheringham Park, but did you know that it wasn’t always there? Do you know why it was built? And did you know about the secret capsule hidden inside?

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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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  • Do you remember the “Rawleigh Man”?
    William Thomas Rawleigh, or W.T. as he was later known, was an American businessman who mastered the practice of door-to-door sales of medicated ointments both in the US and overseas...

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  • Harmony Hill House, Wallis Island
    In the late 1940s, Finnish immigrant John Sointu built this remarkable home on Wallis Island, near Forster...

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  • Christina ‘Ruth’ Gardiner
    Christina ‘Ruth’ Cameron was born 31 March 1909 at Wingham to Alexander and Agnes Cameron and is believed to have been the first baby born at Nurse Cameron’s Private Hospital…

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  • Nancy-Bird Walton (1915 – 2009)
    Nancy Bird flew into the history pages in 1935 when, at the age of 19, she became the first woman to hold a commercial flying licence in Australia. She was a pioneer in aviation and used this passion to help and inspire others. Nancy was born in Kew, NSW in 1915. After attending school in…

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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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  • 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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  • Failford - a name on a map
    Failford is a locality set amidst pleasant countryside, but dominated today (2019) by large lot residential subdivisions. Perhaps not historically interesting? But, then again...

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  • Mervyn Chapman
    Mervyn Chapman was born in 1918. His trip from Taree Hospital to his home on Chapman Island in the Wallamba River was a perilous journey on the back of a motorcycle…

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  • John Wylie Paton Breckenridge
    John Wylie Paton Breckenridge Senior (1818–1899) emigrated from Scotland with his wife Lilias Reid (1826–1870) and two children John Wylie Junior and Agnes on board the “Nimroud” in 1859…

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  • Baheeg 'Bill' Saad: Manning Cafe, Taree
    Baheeg ‘Bill’ Saad was born in Douma, Lebanon in 1907. He was a well-known business man who established...

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  • Old Taree Showgrounds
    Did you know that the Taree Showgrounds near Muldoon Street were not always there? We have discovered that they were much closer to the centre of Taree. Read on to learn more...

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  • James Hickey Stevens
    James Hickey Stevens, known as ‘Jim’ to all, was the second son of George and Eliza Stevens of ‘Killarney’, Dyers Crossing...

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  • Charley Dumas: Australia’s First International Cricket Team
    Charley Dumas (Bripmuarrimian) was born in western Victoria and along with 12 other men, takes his place in history as a member of Australia’s first international cricket team...

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  • Orara Kendall
    The Australian born poet Henry Kendall was born in 1839. Never physically robust…

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  • Picture Perfect: Taree’s Civic Theatre
    While the other buildings down Pulteney Street slept, Taree’s Civic Theatre teemed with life. Its glass doors welcomed patrons into its newly formed entrance hall...

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  • Stephen Hopkins: Ex A.I.F.
    In society there are always people who fall through the cracks – one such was Stephen Hopkins...

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  • Wally Shiers: a forgotten aviator
    In 1928 Victoria Street, Taree was buzzed by a light plane piloted by George Newnham Mills. He was accompanied by Wally Shiers, who has an impressive back story...

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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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  • Dee, Me and Three
    I was born after WWII. We lived in a reasonably modern home at Shalimar built by my father. We bathed in a tub in front of the fuel stove…

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  • Mrs Maude Scharkie
    In April 1906, Maude Hall married John Edward Scharkie in Newcastle, NSW. The early years of their marriage were marred by the death of their three year old son…

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  • Ernie Gorton, leather craftsman, Nabiac
    Ernie became interested in leather goods and entered the trade of saddler and bootmaker. He set up business in Clarence Town but believing he would be more successful…

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  • Former Union Church, Craven
    The village of Craven was settled in the early years of the twentieth century. For many years there was no church in the village…

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  • Market Square, Cundletown
    In November 1854 an advertisement was placed in the Sydney newspaper Empire seeking the services of “a competent surveyor to lay out for sale the township of Cundle on the Manning River” The set out, and probably also the design, of this private township was subsequently awarded to Walter Clayton. Walter came from Sussex, England…

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  • The Dun family of Hillside Dairy, Cape Hawke
    In 1925 Thomas bought a dairy farm situated on Minor Road which is now called Cape Hawke Road, Forster...

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  • Wesley Chambers, 146 Victoria Street, Taree
    For two separate Councils to occupy premises in the same regional town is not unheard of, but to occupy space just across the hallway in the same building ... now that is unusual…

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  • Joseph De Lore
    The tattoos of this young romantic, Joseph De Lore (Dolleur), were recorded when he was arrested in Montreal, Canada in 1837 for housebreaking…

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  • Mildred Muscio: Women's Rights Activist
    Florence Mildred Fry was born at Copeland near Gloucester in 1882. Her parents were Jane McLennan, assistant teacher and Charles Fry who conducted the post office...

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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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  • St Luke’s Anglican Church, West Street, Coopernook
    St Luke’s Anglican Church at Coopernook is built on land donated by William Newton of “Coopernook House”...

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  • What’s in a name?
    At the outbreak of WW1, Frederick Ziegenbein (or Zeigenbein) was employed as a telegraphist at Taree Post Office...

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  • Stephen Powles: Poor to Prof
    Stephen Powles grew up in Latham Avenue, Chatham in a State Government Housing Commission rental in the 1950s and 60s...

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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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  • When John Gardiner met Ruth Cameron…
    They spoke for seven years before they met face to face. Mervyn Machin decided to play matchmaker and reportedly said to John who had a reputation for being a man of few words…

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  • Girambit
    Girambit ‘Saltwater’ with its natural beauty and waterways has always been a sacred and spiritual place. It is the home of the Birrbay ‘Biripi’ people and it is a place of healing...

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  • Ben Montford’s Fire Lookout Tower
    When Ben Montford bought his property on Stoney Mountain near Booral, he inherited the remains of an old fire lookout tower...

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  • The Robert Burns Inn, Tinonee
    On New Year’s Eve 1855, Scottish siblings William and Flora McKinnon and Flora’s husband William Wilkes sang ‘Auld Lang Syne’ in a wooden building located at the corner of Manchester and Winter Streets, Tinonee...

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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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  • John Guilding's Bitter-Sweet Dream
    Through the abhorrent use of an enslaved workforce, plantation owners in the West Indies had made huge fortunes from the cultivation of that most sought-after commodity – sugar...

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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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  • Just a child: Private John Lancelot Andrews
    John Lancelot Andrews enlisted in December 1916 to fight with the Australian Imperial Forces in World War 1. Within three months he was a private in the Lewis Machine Gun Section of the 54th Battalion and encamped in England...

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  • Waukivory School
    In 1907 The Gloucester Estate Ltd put to auction the first blocks in the so called Waukivory Subdivision. As the land was taken up the community saw the need for a school…

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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 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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  • Taree Old Bar Surf Life Saving Club
    On New Year’s Day 1928 a meeting was held to discuss the formation of a surf club at Old Bar. A week earlier on Boxing Day there had been almost 4000 beachgoers...

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  • The Australian Agricultural Company: Introduction
    The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) is Australia’s oldest continuous company. It was established in 1824 through an Act of British Parliament for the purpose of improving flocks of Merino sheep...

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  • Mitchells Island Butter Factory
    On Saturday 30 November 1918, hundreds of people gathered at Mitchells Island to witness the opening of the Manning River Cooperative Dairy Company’s butter factory...

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  • Cooplacurripa – the changing nature of a pastoral run
    In 1848, as the government strove to formalise unregulated squatting, members of the Denne family applied to lease “Cooplacumpa” (Cooplacurripa)...

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  • Nurse Avery’s Private Hospital, Tea Gardens
    In 1927, Mabel Avery completed her training in Midwifery in Sydney before opening a private hospital in the large house called ‘Glengarry’, Myall Street, Tea Gardens...

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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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  • Bring Back the Flying Boats!
    The Manning River was not only important for shipping … it once hosted flying boats...

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  • Our Lady of the Rosary Taree
    Standing proudly in Albert Street, Taree’s “Our Lady of the Rosary” Roman Catholic Church has been a landmark since 1930. It replaced the much smaller…

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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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  • “Malvern” 120 Manning Street, Taree
    Ray Hurst has been a long time resident of 120 Manning Street, Taree and was interested in the history of this old house. Here is what we found…

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  • Edward Cannon: Bight Cemetery
    Edward Cannon was one of many British teenagers assisted to migrate to Australia between 1911 and 1939 under the Dreadnought Scheme…

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  • Taree Masonic Hall
    Taree Freemasons held their first meeting in the Protestant Hall (now a liquor store, 2024) in Manning Street on 4 October 1878...

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  • Rushby Casino
    Vic Rushby had a secret. During the week he was the ‘mild-mannered’ manager of Rushby Shoes, while on the weekend he unleashed his superhero powers on Old Bar…

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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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  • Darawank Public School
    The former Darawank Public School is a heritage listed building and a fine example of a nineteenth century brick school in the New South Wales Mid-Coast region. The school was built on land owned by James Brown, a farmer, who bought 100 acres of farmland along the Wallamba River in 1889. Soon after, two acres…

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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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  • 19 River Street, Taree
    For nearly a century this beautiful timber house at 19 River Street, Taree has overlooked the Manning River. Florence Emma Billingham…

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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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  • “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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  • The old red shed and a tornado
    One of the few buildings that survived the march of time on the Strathcedar property that had been owned by Royden and Florence Newell in the 1900s was the house and the old red shed...

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  • Christmas Bells at Crowdy Head
    Between Crowdy Head and Diamond Head is a great plain that has long been home to Australian wildflowers, particularly Christmas bells, Christmas bush and flannel flowers…

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  • Former Rural Bank of NSW, Taree
    On Tuesday 25 June 1935 at 10am the newly built Taree branch of the Rural Bank of NSW opened for general business. The opening of the bank...

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  • Now and Then Photos

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  • Walter Brunton Brownlee – a determined Scottish Lad
    Among the names inscribed on the Nabiac War Memorial, most of which have connections to local families, one may be unfamiliar – Walter Brunton Brownlee…

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  • 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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  • 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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  • H. Nelson & Sons
    Herman Nelson, a carpenter was born in Kempsey. The family left their general store in St. Ives and travelled by horse and cart to Taree in 1923...

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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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  • Manning River VJ Sailing Club
    Sailing resumed on the Manning River after WW2. When the VJ Club was established in 1947 it occupied the North Coast Steam Navigation Company wharf...

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  • How did Spence Street, Taree get its name?
    Samuel Spence was born in Bradford, England in 1857. He joined the army as a young man but became interested in travel so joined the sea service where he gained navigational and marine engineer qualifications…

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  • Nigel Kennedy and Fotheringham’s Hotel Taree
    Nigel Kennedy is an English violinist, famous for bringing classical music to the masses when he sold over two million copies of his above album in 1989. But did you know of his connection to Taree?

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  • Wingham Brush
    Imagine this…it is 1920 and you are travelling along Isabella Street, Wingham. You see an enormous fig tree on one side and foliage on the other. At the end of the street is the Wingham Wharf leading onto the Manning River. What is this place?

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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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  • Old Bar Public School
    In November 2019, Old Bar Public School celebrated the completion of their new building. As students proudly showed off their modern learning place...

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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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  • Glenthorne Public School: Segregated history
    Glenthorne Provisional School opened in a room on Thomas Trotter’s farm “Orange Grove” in July 1877 with an enrolment of 36 students. Within three years, under the tutelage of Miss Eliza Plummer, the school became a Public school. In 1891 a more permanent brick building was erected, while in 1906 a cottage was moved from…

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  • Robert Croker and the Nabiac War Memorial
    Robert Croker was awarded the contract to build the memorial and hired other war veterans to help him. The dedication service was on ANZAC Day 1932 and some 60 returned soldiers marched to the new memorial...

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  • Then and Now: Beehive Store Taree

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  • Wingham School of Arts
    The first School of Arts in Wingham began in 1875 in a single-storey building at 23-29 Isabella Street…

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  • The Victoria Fever Ward, Manning Base Hospital, Taree
    Located in a quadrangle, surrounded by the ‘new’ buildings of the Manning Base Hospital is the 125 year old building called the Victoria Fever Ward...

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  • John Wylie Breckenridge: The Laird of Failford
    John Wylie Breckenridge (1846-1917) was the eldest son of John Wylie Paton Breckenridge of Forster...

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  • The Elusive Frederick Manton
    Frederick Manton, a son of renowned English gunsmith Joseph Manton, arrived in Sydney in April 1829...

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  • Neville Weiley Bridge
    On Friday 18 April 1958 over 1000 people attended the opening of the Neville Weiley Bridge at Bohnock. It was the first bridge to link the islands of the Manning River’s delta...

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  • Tommy Boomer / Bulmer
    Tommy Boomer / Bulmer was born at Dingo Creek in 1865. He was a very good fisherman and diver, catching up to 10 lobsters each time...

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  • "Merton", 3 Macquarie Street, Taree
    In November 1903 George Ford, a Taree butcher, paid £50 for land in Macquarie Street, being Lot 17 in Section 15…

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  • Eliza and George Stevens' Sons
    Dyers Crossing pioneers, Eliza and George Stevens, had nine children. Below are brief details of three of their five sons...

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  • George Cassimaty: Local hero
    George Cassimaty was a well-known business identity in Taree running a fruit exchange and refreshment rooms in Manning and Victoria Streets for many years. Born on the Greek island of Kythira…

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  • Pindimar Shark Factory
    “Every shark taken by us lessens the chance of your being taken by a shark.” This was the catchcry of Marine Industries Ltd who in 1929…

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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • A successful farmer with a wooden leg
    After losing a leg due to an accident with a cricket ball, Royden Robert Newell made use of a wooden replacement…

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  • Tunbridge Wells, 81 High Street, Taree
    Henry Wilson Alcorn began his life on the Manning as a farmer and later advertised his services as a brick merchant and building contractor. He constructed many brick buildings around Taree, including the Exchange Hotel and his own home 'Tunbridge Wells'…

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  • Guy Prior – A Young Boy’s Hero
    Only my parents would have a greater influence on my early life than Guy Prior…

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  • Don Athaldo: Taree’s Strongman Connection
    In 1935 Lewis Gorton and his brothers played in the Failford Football Club. As there were no gyms at the time, training was difficult, so Gorton wrote to Don Athaldo…

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  • Ida Niemi: Independent Spirit on Wallis Island
    At the age of 25, Ida Niemi left her Finnish hometown and journeyed to Canada in search of opportunity. A decade later...

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  • Dorothea Amelia Field “Dot”
    Dot loved to wear a floral dress, print apron and pink bedroom slippers. She had little schooling, married young and worked hard to support her three daughters...

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  • Taree's first town clerk
    Born and raised in London, Horace Beeton trained as a draper’s assistant and at the age of 21 decided to try his luck in New Zealand…

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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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  • Geoffrey Blake Hammond
    Geoffrey Blake Hammond was born 1898, Wingham and served in WW1. He was granted land under the Returned Soldiers Settlement Act of 1916...

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  • The Gorton Family two generations on…
    Noel Gorton was born at the Australian Agricultural Company’s headquarters in Carrington around 1828. His father George had arrived in Australia in 1826 to work for the company…

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  • Hobson’s Store - 135 Victoria Street, Taree
    Late in 1922 an imposing two storied commercial building was under construction in Victoria Street, near the intersection with Manning Street...

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  • Dr Joan Margaret Redshaw, AM (1921-1994)
    Joan Margaret Redshaw was born in Sydney in 1921 and studied medicine at the University of Sydney where she graduated with honours…

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  • Victory Cafe Taree
    In 1943 George Cassimaty moved his business from Manning Street to set up the Victory Café in the Beehive Building. It was here that George changed the face of the Taree café scene...

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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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  • Forster Ocean Baths and Casino
    The Forster Ocean Baths opened on 20 December 1935 with an official ceremony conducted on 18 January 1936. The baths and buildings were designed by…

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  • 32 Eric Street, Taree
    32 Eric Street, Taree is a modest, yet eminently practical residential development, which has stood the test of time...

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  • Jeanette Elphick aka Victoria Shaw: Model turned Actress
    In 1985, Hollywood actress Victoria Shaw returned to Australia in failing health to live with her sister Margaret McDonell at 37 River Street, Taree…

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  • Wingham's first stationmaster
    The Wingham Stationmaster’s house is one of those rare survivors that has thus far escaped demolition. Although it has seen better days, a community drive is underway to save the 1911 cottage...

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  • “Invermay”, 70 Wynter Street, Taree
    The story of “Invermay” is connected to the story of Catherine Thomson. Catherine was a commercial institution in Taree…

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  • Prickly Pear Cough Syrup – a local speciality?
    Until the mid nineteenth century cochineal was highly sought after as the pre-eminent agent to produce a rich, vibrant red dye. It was the substance used to colour the British army ‘Red Coat’ uniforms…

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  • Percy Sotheron: The Sailor and the Siren
    On the evening of St Patrick’s Day 1884, Percy, a seaman from the “Renard” was approached by a young woman in King Street, Sydney…

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  • Richard Stoddart – buried far from home
    Richard Stoddart did not die a lonely death. He was surrounded by friends, with, presumably, no thought that his life was about to be cut short...

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  • Purfleet Butter Factory
    Most days I drive past the site where a magnificent butter factory once stood tall. The Purfleet Butter Factory was opened on 14 December 1897 by the Australian Dairying Company...

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  • Croquet in Taree
    Following a public meeting of interested persons in Taree in April 1937, the formation of Taree Croquet Club took place on 7 August of that year…

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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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  • The Bridge Service Station, Cnr Victoria and Commerce Streets, Taree
    In the early 1920s Russian born John Kusnetzoff and his family arrived in Queensland. He later moved to NSW and joined the staff at Sanders Dairy…

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  • Daralea Nursery and Florist
    In 1931 Minnie Elizabeth Lee started a nursery, confectionary, florist and seed shop at 134 Victoria Street, Taree called “Lee’s Nursery”...

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  • Albert Augustus Smith
    Albert Augustus Smith was a baker who owned ‘The Old Bakery’ in Comboyne, and a bakery and the ‘Majestic Theatre’ in Church Street, Gloucester. After his wife’s disappearance...

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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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  • Gloucester Advocate
    The Gloucester Advocate newspaper was founded by Frank Townshend who released the first issue 8 July 1905...

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  • Adolph and Charlotte Ohma
    Adolph Ohma was born in 1892 in Sydney to an Australian mother and Norwegian father. As a young man Dolph left Sydney on a steamer to work at Wright’s shipyard, Tuncurry…

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  • Taree Bowling Club
    However, the club’s origins date back to 1924 when three blocks of land in Christen Christensen’s new subdivision were purchased...

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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 Protestant Hall
    The Loyal Orange Institution is a Protestant masonic order founded in Ireland in the 1790s. It aims to uphold and promote strict Protestant beliefs. In June 1874, a lodge known as "McGibbon"...

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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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  • Maud Mabel Wilkes
    In June 1917 Maud Mabel Wilkes married the Cape Hawke Regatta Champion Rower Albert George Chapman...

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  • James Bugg: Overseer of Shepherds AACo
    English born James Bugg arrived in Australia as a convict in 1826 and a year later was in the employ of the AACo...

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  • Majestic Theatre Gloucester
    The history of the Majestic Theatre is as dramatic as the movies that played there for over half a century. In 1926 Albert Augustus Smith, baker, bought the property and built a bakery and a picture show. The theatre, with seating for 400, opened on 21 August 1926 with Charlie Chaplin’s “Gold Rush” being one…

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  • Harry Combo: The Valley’s Greatest Showman
    At the age of 42, buck-jumping champion Harry Combo from Dingo Creek, was considered the “old man” as he took centre stage at the 1920 Wingham Show. With the grandstand full to overflowing…

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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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  • George De Saxe and Amy Mackay, Dentists
    George De Saxe was born in 1856 and worked most of his life as a dentist in Sydney and Parramatta. He often visited smaller towns providing dental services and in September 1900 visited Wingham for this purpose…

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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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  • Alfred Cavalchini: Baker, Confectioner and Photographer
    Italian born Alfred Cavalchini arrived in Sydney at the age of 16 in 1900. During World War I, Cavalchini took photographic portraits of young men as they headed to war in their uniforms...

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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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  • 2 Commerce Street, Taree
    Between 1903 and 1906, William Wrigley bought 5 lots of land on the corner of River and Commerce Streets, Taree. William was a builder and carpenter and after completing his apprenticeship in Sydney he went to South Africa where the building trade was flourishing. He returned to Australia in 1898 and spent the next 44 years…

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  • Pampoolah Public School
    It is hard to believe that a forgotten, dirt road terminating at the Manning River was once the hub of a busy, farming community. Redbank Road, Pampoolah used to host a...

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  • Dan Bros, Gloucester
    ‘Dan Bros’ was an early business in Gloucester established in 1929. The brothers who emigrated from Lebanon were...

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  • Martin Bridge
    Have you ever seen the big wheels on the river foreshore near Martin Bridge at Taree? Have you ever wondered what they were used for? If you read on, you will learn about the history of Martin Bridge...

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  • The Star Theatre, Gloucester
    George O’Gorman Boustead was a Gloucester mechanic who had a passion for moving pictures. He is credited with bringing the ‘talkies’ to Gloucester...

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  • Charles Hugh Algie
    If you have ever driven through Haberfield in Sydney you may have noticed ‘Algie Park’. Ashfield Council unanimously decided in 1911 to name it after Charles Hugh Algie…

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  • Anne Baxter – Hollywood Actress
    On 12 December 1985 the Los Angeles Times reported the death of Anne Baxter aged 62. This followed a stroke suffered some eight days earlier. Anne Baxter was a grand-daughter of the influential architect Frank Lloyd Wright. More importantly she was a very successful American actress with a career spanning her Broadway debut aged 13…

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