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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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  • Trooper Percy Lyon – 7th Light Horse Regiment
    Generally speaking, the names inscribed on war memorials indicate that the individual has experienced the horrors of the battlefield, but this is not always the case. For these exceptions, their stories are, nevertheless, poignant. Percival Ernest Lyon was born on 22 November 1891, the fourth son of James and Alice Lyon. His father was a…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Mud Bishop, birth of the Australian Crawl
    You may have heard stories of the recluse and retired policeman, Mud Bishop, who made his home at the entrance of the Manning River at Old Bar from 1923 until his death in 1944. But have you heard of his amazing place in Australian Sporting History? Wallace James ‘Mud’ Bishop was born in 1878 in…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Tahlee House
    Nestled in the grounds of Tahlee Ministries near Carrington is the beautiful, heritage-listed ‘Tahlee House’. It was built in 1826 by the Australian Agricultural Company...
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  • 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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  • 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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  • Manning Steam Laundry
    In the mid 1960s whilst undertaking work on the Chapman Place parking area, traces of brickwork were uncovered which were believed to be part of an underground well used by the Manning Steam Laundry. Henry W Alcorn was a local builder who, in 1915, saw the potential in developing a commercial laundry to service Taree…
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  • Sander’s Dairy
    Christian Sander, his wife and three daughters, arrived in Brisbane aboard the Japanese steamer “Aki Maru” in December 1923. Sander, an Estonian national, told of colourful adventures in escaping from the Bolshevik regime in Russia. Circa 1926 Sander commenced the production and sale of ice-cream in a small premises in Victoria Street, Taree. The success…
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  • Castor, a man from Madagascar
    On 12 April 1856, an African man died in the vicinity of Tarree Estate. His name was Castor, a labourer aged 50 years, who died from heart disease. Witnesses to the burial were Henry Flett, William Wynter Jnr. and Thomas Dyball. His death certificate states he was born in Madagascar but this story begins in Mauritius…
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  • The establishment of Purfleet Mission
    By 1900 the NSW Aborigines Protection Board had decided that it was better for Aboriginal people to live separately from Europeans. It was to ‘protect them from the worst excesses and corrupting influences of European society’...
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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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  • A Tinonee Tragedy
    On 12 January 1910, George Gollan, son of Captain Hector and Margaret Gollan married Harriett Mary Ann Polley (known as Artie). Making their home in Tinonee, they had three children...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • The kindness of fisherman: 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Commonwealth Bank Mural – 176 Victoria Street, Taree
    In 1956 the Commonwealth Bank commissioned Byram Mansell to design a mural for its new premises to be erected in Victoria Street, Taree. Born in Sydney in 1893, William Arthur “Byram” Mansell was trained as an engineer, but attended evening classes at Julian Ashton’s Art School. Seeking to further his experience, he travelled overseas and, whilst…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • William Oscar Ryan
    Following rowdy melees at the 1923 Boxing Day Regatta at Croki, William Oscar (Spike) Ryan was convicted of the manslaughter of Frederick Smith. Narrowly avoiding a jail sentence, Ryan turned his life around and is remembered as a highly skilled boat builder.
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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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  • 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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  • "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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Lionel Stephen Whitbread
    Lionel Stephen Whitbread was born in 1885 and lived his early life at Sidebottom (Koorainghat). Son of Taree town clerk and school teacher mother, Lionel was known for his integrity and honesty...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Chinese Market Garden of Wingham
    Just north of the Cedar Party Bridge at Wingham is the site of an old Chinese market garden that was originally worked by Ben Lee (Yee Sow) in the early 1900s...
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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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  • “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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  • Saxbys Soft Drinks
    “Ahh Saxbys, taste it to believe it”. Recognise this famous catch phrase? Who doesn’t love the best-selling Saxbys classic stone ginger beer trickling down your throat on a hot summer’s day? Saxbys was first established in 1864...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Gloucester Advocate
    The Gloucester Advocate newspaper was founded by Frank Townshend who released the first issue 8 July 1905...
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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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  • 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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  • The Great White Train
    The Great White Train steamed into Taree in the early hours of Thursday 2 September 1926...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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 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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  • 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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  • ‘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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Charles Edwards: Purfleet Sportsman and Entertainer
    Charles Edwards was a talented man. He lived at the Purfleet Aboriginal mission station four kilometres south of Taree. Charlie was an outstanding sportsman playing both cricket and rugby league...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • A Glimpse Into The Good Old Days
    This true life anecdote from Mitchell’s Island happened in either 1920 or 1921. It was told to me by the late Rosalie Cardow (nee Mudford) in her ninetieth year. The heartbreaking poverty of farming families in those days is hard to comprehend now.
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  • The well in the Art Gallery Carpark
    On Friday 25 May 2018, as excavators were constructing a carpark for the Manning Regional Art Gallery in Macquarie Street, Taree, an old brick well was uncovered. Seeing the handmade bricks...
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • The Browns and The Big Hairs
    Each year on the third weekend in August in Montana USA, the Crow Fair begins. In 1992 during the Crow Fair, the Brown family from Taree were adopted into the Al and Ruby Big Hair family...
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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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  • 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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  • Mrs M E Williams' Refreshments Room
    Since 1908, Maud Elizabeth Williams had conducted a successful tea room in Church Street. She was a confectioner, fruiterer and pastry cook...
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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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  • The Cloud Wallaby
    The Cloud Wallaby is a fable written and illustrated by Pixie O’Harris. It was published in The School Magazine in August 1949. It goes something like this...
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  • Black Head Surf Club or is it River Club?
    Calls for a lifesaving club at Black Head started as early as 1915 after the near drowning of four people. Ten years later in 1925, the surf club officially opened. While rescues have been a part of regular duty, a special rescue happened in Taree in 1929. Black Head and Taree-Old Bar Surf Clubs have…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Majestic Cafe, Gloucester
    In 1926 picture show proprietor and baker, Albert Augustus Smith, built the Majestic Theatre and a year later constructed a shop (café) and five-roomed dwelling next door called the Majestic Café...
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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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  • Eliza Stevens nee Hickey
    Eliza Hickey married George Stevens in 1889. After living their first two years of marriage on the Myall River, they moved to 'Killarney', Dyers Crossing where she lived for the next 49 years with her family.
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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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  • Gathang Guuyang (Gathang Canoe)
    On 20 May 2012 at Bungwahl, for the first time in over 150 years the guuyang builders, led by Steve Brereton, a Warrimay (Worimi) man, with strong connections to country and culture took a canoe from Gathang country…
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  • The 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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  • 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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  • ‘Belmont’ House, Tinonee
    Perched on a hill overlooking a bend in the Manning River is the heritage-listed house ‘Belmont’ at 4 Washington Street, Tinonee. The Gollan family owned this property for over 100 years...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Ian David Redman – a little boy’s handprint
    The story of a little boy’s handprint in the cement of a shed at 101 Bungay Road, Wingham has touched people’s hearts. Thanks to community input the sad ending to this tale has been uncovered…
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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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  • 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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  • Toki Simon: The smiling assassin
    Toki William Simon was a Biripi man born in Forster, NSW in 1915. When he was young, Toki worked with his family to craft cabbage tree furniture at Forster. He also played rugby league for Cape Hawke being regularly identified as one of the team’s best players. In 1939 Toki married Joyce Dungay from Taree. World…
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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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  • 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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  • Our Manning River: Transformation of Brown's Creek (Crooked Creek), Taree
    It’s heartening to see that waterways once used as dumping-grounds are now valued by the community and restored to places of beauty and ecological health...
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  • From the Manning to Majdanek
    I never did meet Max although he was known to my parents. Max was often discounted as “odd” but after reading what he endured during WWII I understand why – it was horrific...
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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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  • 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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  • 'Joker' the cattle dog
    'Horrie the War Dog’ is a well-known Australian novel documenting the true story of Private Moody and his dog during World War II. But did you know that Old Bar had its own war dog? His name was Joker...
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  • Camphor Laurel Trees, Albert Street, Taree
    In the early twentieth century, the planting of street trees for town beautification was strongly advocated...
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  • Wingham Wharf
    The remnants of the Wingham Wharf have witnessed nearly 190 years of activity. Apart from stories of the timber and shipping industries, there are tales of celebration, sadness and madness. Read on…
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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 accidental death of John Nicholson, shipbuilder
    The day Nicholson died he was travelling from Raymond Terrace to Port Stephens in a horse and cart (having moved to Karuah). The morning was wet 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Whitbread's Corner
    The corner of Victoria and Manning Streets, Taree where the Exchange Hotel now stands (2020) was once known as ‘Whitbread’s Corner’. Samuel and Mary Whitbread arrived from England as assisted immigrants on the ship ‘Equestrian’ in 1848…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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