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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Arthur William Mackenzie Mowle – Architect and Dairy Cattle Enthusiast
    Arthur was born at Bondi on 27 October 1894, the eldest son of William Stewart Mowle and grandson of Mr A K Mackenzie of “Boonara”, Bondi...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Badgers to Boogie Woogie, 31 David Street, Old Bar
    For over a century, tourists have frequented the seaside village of Old Bar. The building on the corner of David and Clerke Streets was, and still is, central to the ‘vibe’ of the town…
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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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  • ‘Bridgecourt’, 9 Commerce Street, Taree
    In 1949 Edward Rupert Payten invested the not inconsiderable sum of £11,000 in the construction of a ‘hostel’ on the corner of Albert Lane and Commerce Street...
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  • North Coast Steam Navigation Co Ltd
    In August 1891 the North Coast Steam Navigation Company was formed by the merger of the Clarence, Richmond and Macleay Rivers Steam Navigation Company and John See and Company...
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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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  • St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Gloucester
    St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Gloucester was opened Wednesday 19 December 1906 and was celebrated by a service followed by photos, tea and a meeting...
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  • Ladies’ Old Bar Surf Club
    In September 1930, a proposal to form a Ladies’ Surf Bathing Club at Old Bar in conjunction with the Old Bar Surf Club was eagerly adopted and five weeks later the club house was complete…
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  • Westcrag Lodge of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows
    The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was conceived as a friendly society which provided financial support to its members in need and promoted their moral, social and intellectual development. It was established in Australia in the 1840s. Lodges proliferated in Australia and even small communities were able to generate sufficient numbers to form local Lodges…
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  • White's Corner, Gloucester
    Archibald Joseph White, prominent townsperson, Shire Councillor and District Coroner was found dead in a hut on his grazing property at Bundook in 1939. He had died of a heart attack soon after arriving there...
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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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  • Brinawa School
    The Bulga Plateau in the rugged Wingham hinterland has always been somewhat inaccessible and sparsely populated: however a school was established in the Bulgong (now Elands) village in 1916. In the mid 1920s, the scattered settlers to the west of the village petitioned the government to provide another facility in the locality of Brinawa to…
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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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  • Library and Visitor Information Centre, Gloucester
    In 1937 George Harold Matthewson, a well-known stock and station auctioneer in Gloucester, built new premises for his next venture – a car and farm machinery sales centre…
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  • Fotheringham’s Hotel, Taree
    Fotheringham’s Hotel (affectionately called Fog’s) in Victoria Street, Taree started out as the Commercial Hotel and was owned by John Keats, then Alfred McCartney…
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  • 61-65 Church Street, Gloucester
    In December 1936, the finishing touches were being made to Mr Robert Kendall’s new business block. Designed and built by Mr E Patmore…
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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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  • Tinonee Broom Factories
    Tinonee was once home to no less than four broom factories. Joseph Edward Chapman established the industry when he distributed free seeds to farmers to encourage them to grow millet crops. The experiment was so successful that he opened a broom factory in 1894 which employed 5 people and provided work to local sawmills making broom handles...
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  • The Man in the Hut
    Around the 1940s an unassuming man moved into a hut on the edge of the ocean at Crowdy Head. At times he worked in the Fishermen’s Cooperative, becoming well known to the locals. With no electricity or modern conveniences, he lived a simple, hermit-like lifestyle.
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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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  • 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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  • Tom L Dudgeon – Stonemason
    Born in 1884, Tom Dudgeon followed in his father’s footsteps and became a stonemason…
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  • Strange coincidence: Brown sisters
    Behind the humble façade of this Tuncurry Cemetery headstone lies the extraordinary coincidence of the Brown sisters’ death...
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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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  • 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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  • “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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  • 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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  • 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 Walter Plummer Hall
    ‘The Walter Plummer Hall’ is a two-storey brick building situated in the heart of the Taree Showgrounds. It was built in 1910 as an exhibition hall for the new showgrounds. Some declaring it ‘the best hall outside the great cities of the state’. Walter Plummer was an auctioneer and one of the most popular men in the district.
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  • Craft Cottage: 77 Pulteney Street, Taree
    Following the death of the then owner George De Fraine of Sydney, vacant land having frontages to Pulteney, High and Wynter Streets was sold in 1908…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Alban Albury Maloney
    At the south-western corner of Taree Park stand memorial gates dedicated to the memory of A A Maloney. But who was A A Maloney? Born in Albury in 1888, Alban Albury Maloney was a highly skilled dentist. He settled in Taree circa 1912, acquiring the dental practice formerly conducted by Mr H A Tuck. Following…
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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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  • 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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  • St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Taree
    On 28 July 1869 the Taree Presbyterian Church was opened by Rev. James Cameron of Richmond with the presiding minister Rev. J S Laing delivering the first sermon in the evening…
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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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  • William Robert Hill Franks
    William Robert Hill Franks came to Australia with his mother in 1876. Soon afterwards his mother died leaving 12 year old William alone in Sydney…
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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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  • Kerewong Estate
    In 1906 the NSW Government passed legislation to enable the construction of a railway connection from Maitland to South Grafton. Many owners of large land holdings along the route saw this as an incentive to subdivide their property...
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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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  • A sawmiller and beef farmer
    When Trevor Newell inherited 160 acres in 1974 from his parents Royden and Florence Newell, at Strathcedar on the Mooral Creek Road, it was going back to tea tree scrub and weeds...
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  • Eliza and George Stevens' Daughters
    Dyers Crossing pioneers, Eliza and George Stevens, had nine children. Below are brief details of the lives of their four daughters...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Channell's, 54 Church Street, Gloucester
    Henry James Channell was a hairdresser in Sydney with two salons in Park and George Streets. In 1907 he and his brother Arthur bought land at the Waukivory Subdivision...
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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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  • Young Ping
    Although Young Ping was born in Yokohama, Japan in 1860, his family were likely of Chinese origin. Ping came to Australia in 1879 aboard an American mail boat…
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  • My Backyard in Tea Gardens
    My backyard in Witt Street, Tea Gardens is a place I remember well back in the 40s...
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  • Hector Holmes Service No. 3555 – POW
    In November 1917, in the midst of the Great War, newspapers nationwide carried the heartening news of two Australian escapees from a German prison camp. One of these combatants was Hector Holmes...
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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 in 1930 police searched his ovens but found no clues, only a length of fuse which they could not link to the case...
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  • Mill Creek – Taree’s hidden waterway
    The very first entry in the 1885 Taree Municipal Council Rate Book shows a Mr Avery as the owner of a mill and dwelling…
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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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  • The Great White Train
    The Great White Train steamed into Taree in the early hours of Thursday 2 September 1926...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Simsville - a Settlement in Purgatory
    Located in the Purgatory Scrub east of Stroud, Simsville, also known as The Jarrah, was the site of a timber getting and sawmilling operation spanning the years 1911 to 1947…
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  • Private Willie Alway
    When you find a personalised photo in your Aunt's collection from someone you have never heard of before, your curiosity can't help but get the better of you...
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  • Food Fair
    Bill Nelson purchased the Blue Flag grocery store in Manning Street, Taree in 1937. It put me in mind of Ronnie Barker’s ‘Open All Hours’...
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  • James Arthur Winney – music teacher and journalist
    James Arthur Winney was born in London on 18 July 1859. He received a musical education at the Tonic Solfa College in London and as a young man was…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Dan Bros of Taree
    ‘Dan Bros’ was the first Lebanese family to set up business in Taree in 1932. Nicholas Dan arrived in Australia in 1927 with his brother Toufic ‘George’...
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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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  • Harry Bennett Park, Taree
    Harry Bennett Park is located off River Street, Taree on the Manning riverfront, visible to all who cross the Martin Bridge…
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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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  • Vincenzo Fazio (1865-1962)
    Driving around Tuncurry, you may notice iconic sites such as The Great Lakes Cinema, the abandoned BI-LO, and the Rockpool. But one lesser known locale is Fazio’s Transport and Bricks…
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  • Bombardier John Daniel Stevens
    John Stevens, known as Jack to all, was the eldest son of George and Eliza Stevens of Dyers Crossing…
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  • It's the way we have in Tinonee.....
    John Martin Waterman’s talent was apparent when in 1929 he was awarded a special prize in a state wide essay writing competition run by the Dickens Fellowship…
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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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  • Apparitions at Limeburners Creek
    For many years there stood near the junction of the Karuah River, a large house surrounded by flowers and fruit trees. It was built by the late Captain Griffin, who reared a large family therein…
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  • Hannah Webster
    On 12 November 1913, Hannah, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Wallis, was married at her father’s homestead “Ellerslie”, Bulga. The bridegroom was Benjamin Webster, a timber worker many years her senior. Hannah and Benjamin settled into life on the Plateau. However, over the years relations between them soured and, notwithstanding their large family, they…
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  • The Changing Fortunes of Algar and Cath Bunyard
    A headstone in Wingham Cemetery marks the final resting place of Algar Bunyard. He died in Taree on 22 July 1910 of cirrhosis of the liver, aged 47 years…
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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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  • Shipwrecks at Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse
    Sugarloaf Point Lighthouse is one of the shortest lighthouses in Australia yet it towers above the wild, dramatic coastline. Built in 1875 to warn of the perils of Seal Rocks, it was Colonial Architect James Barnet’s first lighthouse design. Shipwrecks were an unfortunate part of life. In 1876 three vessels stranded simultaneously during a storm.…
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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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  • Dorothy Hayter Memorial and 2BOB Radio Station
    On 29 July 1949, 4 year old Dorothy Hayter was playing in Railway Parade, Chatham just near the Peters Creameries Factory with her sisters and other children from the street…
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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, it can be imagined that George knew how to swim. On 8 December 1923, two year old Gwen Graham was playing in her…
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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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  • Tales from the Bulliac Railway Tunnel
    The Bulliac Railway Tunnel, situated 20kms north of Gloucester, opened 4 February 1913 as part of the North Coast Line, the major trunk line between NSW and Brisbane...
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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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  • Alice Ann Withycombe – an exemplary seamstress
    A finely carved headstone in Woola Cemetery, near Taree, marks the final resting place of Alice Ann Withycombe…
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  • Call of the mermaids at Crowdy Head Lighthouse
    For centuries watery sirens have lured sailors and their vessels onto Mermaid Reef 10 kilometres off the coast of Crowdy Head creating sadness and destruction. In 1878 the government fought these forces by erecting a lighthouse to warn ships of their impending doom...
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  • George William (Gunyah) Green – timber craftsman
    The Bulga Plateau, is well known for the quality and abundance of its timber.  Large timber mills once provided employment for its menfolk, but one man had a lighter touch...
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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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  • The Owl Store, Gloucester
    On 27 March 1929 ‘The Owl Store’ opened at 36 Church Street, Gloucester. It was a Self-Serve Grocery Store – a new method of shopping at the time…
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  • Harry Wilfred Webster
    Harry Wilfred Webster was born in Essex, England in 1885 and undertook his architectural training there...
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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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  • John Cassimaty: Café owner
    John Cassimaty opened his first cafe in 1911 in Victoria Street known as the ‘Elite Refreshment Rooms’…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Taree Literary Institute
    Tucked away upstairs from the busyness of Victoria Street is a hidden gem that has been operating for over 150 years, the Taree Literary Institute. Also known as Schools of Arts, Literary Institutes were established to provide a combination of adult education and recreation facilities and often became the heart of small town activities...
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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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  • The Harrington Maritime Pilot Station
    The Manning River is the only double delta river in the southern hemisphere with one entrance at Harrington and the other at Old Bar. Harrington has long been the river’s gateway, but its treacherous bar has been the ruin of many ships. From as early as 1824 vessels have come to complete ruin at Harrington.…
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  • A new road for Strathcedar and Mooral Creek
    During the late 1800s, access to Strathcedar and Mooral Creek was along a road carved out by early Mooral Creek settlers, the Fords…
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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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  • Adelaide Hill of Zeal Cottage, Wingham
    Everybody loves a ghost story and Wingham has its very own. Zeal Cottage in Queen Street, Wingham is purportedly haunted by the house’s first owner, Adelaide Hill. But who was Adelaide Hill? The daughter of once wealthy parents John and Mary Hooke, Adelaide was born in NSW in 1833 and at an early age…
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  • Captain Jean Benaud
    Cricket trivia question: Q: What connection does famous Australian cricketer Richie Benaud have with Taree? A: In 1963 Richie was in the NSW Sheffield Shield team which played against the Mid North Coast in Taree. And…Richie’s great grandfather lived and died in Taree. Jean Benaud arrived from France as an able seaman on the Ville…
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  • Henry Woodward, Oyster Merchant
    Henry Woodward has been called ‘Father of Australia’s oyster industry’ after he was granted the first ever oyster lease in 1884. The lease was No. 41 in Breckenridge Channel, Wallis Lake – just off Little Street, Forster...
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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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  • 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 Davey holiday home, Hawks Nest
    Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest were sleepy little villages when Joyce Davey first ventured there in the 1930s. Hawks Nest was the main area but not much more than a few bush tracks...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Not all wartime tragedies happen on the battlefield
    On the Bulga Plateau, in the Wingham hinterland, a small number of blocks were set aside for selection by returned service personnel after their repatriation following World War I...
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  • Former National Australia Bank, Taree
    Hardly recognisable today (2019) in its Priceline Pharmacy livery, this building started life in 1935 as a branch of the National Australia Bank…
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  • Daphne Cross (nee Trotter) - A caring mother and outstanding teacher
    Daphne Trotter was born at Pampoolah to Clarence and Victoria Trotter, a descendant of Manning River pioneers Thomas and Mary Trotter...
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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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  • 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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  • Tuncurry Reafforestation Prison Camp
    In November 1913, twenty prisoners were sent to the Tuncurry Reafforestation Prison Camp in an experiment which was the first of its kind in NSW. The prison camp was not so much a gaol as the prisoners were serving out the last months of their sentence. Their job was to plant out acres of pine trees for which the area was once famed. Each prisoner had their own little hut with a bunk and sleeping net...
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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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  • Former Manning River Times Building, Taree
    Taree’s local newspaper, the Manning River Times, has a long history dating back to January 1869 when the first issue was published by Charles Boyce and George Buckleton…
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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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  • 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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  • David Stirling Sharpe: Surveyor
    David Stirling Sharpe was a land surveyor who worked for many years in the Manning region...
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  • Manning Miniature Golf
    171 Victoria Street, Taree – the heart of the CBD – not the most obvious place for a golf course, albeit a miniature course. But, for a short time, one did exist there...
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  • Australian Botanical Products Limited
    In the early years of the 20th century, Eric McMaster arrived in the Nabiac area. In 1912 he married Catherine (Katie) McKinnon, the youngest daughter of the late Captain Donald McKinnon of Glen-Ora, Nabiac.
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  • Orara Kendall
    The Australian born poet Henry Kendall was born in 1839. Never physically robust…
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  • Boomerang Theatre
    “Drum roll please! Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight at the Boomerang Theatre…Blind-folded Boxing!” In 1921, Taree Theatre was open for business...
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  • Yarads Taree
    “We are here to stay!” declared Callile Abraham Yarad and his son Michael Callile ‘Mick’ in this 1933 advertisement of their store’s opening...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Gloucester Advocate
    The Gloucester Advocate newspaper was founded by Frank Townshend who released the first issue 8 July 1905...
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  • The New Manning Valley Pioneers
    Around about 2003, we three couples were on the cusp of retiring from Sydney. We knew that as retirees we might have difficulty adjusting to a major move. So we thought, let’s move together...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Private Maynard Basham, Tinonee
    Of the 19 Tinonee men who enlisted in WW1, 12 were killed in action. Two of these men were awarded the Military Medal, one of those was Private Maynard Basham...
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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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