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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Les Murray: The Bush Bard of Bunyah
    Leslie (Les) Allan Murray AO entered Buckingham Palace in a big dark suit and waistcoat. The baggy striped jumpers and comfy slacks so familiar to his admirers...
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  • 12 Alban Street, Taree
    12 Alban Street, Taree sits on traditional Birrbay land which later became part of the 2560 acres granted to William Wynter in 1839...
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  • Clancy's furniture store Taree
    Walking through Clancy’s furniture store one wonders what was this building’s prior use? An old sign referring to a bakery is not an item for sale but instead a signal to the past...
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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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  • 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 Exchange Hotel, 154 Victoria Street, Taree
    A new brick hotel, constructed by local contractor H W Alcorn, was built on the corner of Victoria and Manning Street opposite Clerke’s butcher shop…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Air Pageant and Aviator’s Ball – Taree 1930
    In the 1920s the fledgling aviation industry was thriving and progressive towns wanted an aerodrome. Thus it came to pass that a portion of Taree Showground was combined with adjoining land donated by Mr H Beeton to provide Taree’s first in-town aerodrome. The official opening was celebrated with an air pageant and aviator’s ball on 7…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • Edward Langley (Teddy) Whitbread
    Edward Langley Whitbread is buried in Woola Cemetery on the outskirts of Taree. The headstone describes his death on the 12th February 1909 as accidental. Look a little closer and you may be able to make out a jockey’s cap and crop incised into the stone. A local lad, Teddy Whitbread was born in 1888 and…
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  • Secret under the Taree Railway
    Just a railway station? Or a Lodge Motel? You would never believe what actually lies beneath!
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Spanish Flu in the Manning Valley
    The pneumonic influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919 had a devastating impact on the world population, leaving more casualties in its wake than the Great War…
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  • William Baird
    This photograph from the 1960s shows the headstone of William Baird at the Angel Close Historic Cemetery in Forster. William Baird was born in 1851 in Sydney…
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  • 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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  • A Life on the Ocean Waves: Hugh McColl McCrindle
    In the 19th century, the Scottish city of Glasgow was a centre of shipbuilding. It was here, in 1880, that Hugh McColl McCrindle was born…
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  • Daphne Irene Chapman: A flair for hair
    Growing up between two world wars Daphne Chapman knew what it was like to go without. Using her flair for hair styling she realised she could…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 'Holmlea' Copeland
    In 1889, Joseph Fallon bought crown land, Section 8 Lot 1, in the village of Copeland. He sold it a year later to Janet Higgins…
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  • Father Patrick O'Regan
    Patrick O’Regan was one of three Irish born brothers who were ordained as priests and joined the catholic ministry in Australia.
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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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  • 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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  • Edwin May: Gloucester’s first police constable
    Edwin Erskine May joined the mounted police force in 1877 and was stationed at Dungog as a constable. The nearby town of Copeland, then known as Back Creek…
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  • The mysterious wedding photo
    This wedding photo, stored at the Batemans Bay Heritage Museum, was donated by the Dunne Family and is described as a 1920s wedding...
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  • 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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  • John “Wylie” Breckenridge Third
    Like his forebears, Wylie Breckenridge was a boat enthusiast. He had an idea for making the sport of motor boat racing popular at Cape Hawke and set about designing a speedboat...
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  • Cynthia Chapman 1921-2006
    Born in 1921, Cynthia was the first daughter of Albert and Maud Chapman of Chapman Island. She was a demure, softly spoken girl who was her father’s pride and joy...
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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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  • Orara Kendall
    The Australian born poet Henry Kendall was born in 1839. Never physically robust…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Nicholas Boyaze
    Nicholas Boyaze (Voyatzis) was born in Crete and settled in Bohnock, a small township on the Manning River, where he managed oyster leases for the Comino Brothers…
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  • Early Tourism in Forster Tuncurry
    During the early years of tourism young people in station wagons loaded with surf boards arrived in Forster. They slept in their cars or on the beaches…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • ‘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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  • 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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  • The Green Hornet
    The Green Hornet began life in the workshops of John Fowler & Co in 1910. Of course, it wasn’t known as the Green Hornet then...
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  • 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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  • 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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  • Gunner Forwood on HMS Endeavour
    Stephen Forwood, born abt 1737, was the Gunner on Captain James Cook’s HMS Endeavour during its epic journey of discovery…
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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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  • Gerard H B McDonell – Award Winning Architect
    Gerard H B McDonell, born in 1908 at Cundle Plains, was the fifth son of John Joseph and Emily Mary McDonell (née Bussell)…
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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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  • “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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  • Captain Cromarty buried at Carrington Cemetery
    During a storm in 1838, a steamer lost its smaller boat which was stranded at One Mile Beach. Cromarty was asked to retrieve the boat and row it back to Port Stephens…
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  • 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 Famous “All Blacks” visit Taree
    In 1920 the New Zealand rugby union team, the “All Blacks” undertook a promotional tour of Australia in order to raise the profile of rugby union…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Shirley Morris - Biripi Activist
    Biripi woman Shirley Mitchell was born in 1933 and grew up on Purfleet Aboriginal Reserve. When welfare authorities came to Purfleet to take Aboriginal children with fairer skin...
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Richard Green: Why did he do it?
    It is not clear why Dick enlisted under his mother’s maiden name. She died in 1911 when he was just 13 years old…
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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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  • Violet Isobel Jobson: 1912-1934
    On the morning of 12 April 1934, Violet Jobson, a young waitress at the Harrington Hotel, started her shift about 6.30am, but was too ill to work…
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  • Miss Vera Abbott’s Cricket Team
    In 1933, Miss Vera Abbott was Wingham’s candidate for the Upper Manning Agricultural and Horticultural Association’s Popular Girl Competition…
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  • 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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  • Robert Clyde Smith and the Dalfram Strike
    No. 4 Jetty at Port Kembla was the scene of a shocking fatality on 7 November 1938. A young man from Tea Gardens, Robert Clyde Smith, was crushed to death while unloading pig-iron (wrought iron) on to a ship bound for Japan…
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  • Norman Barry Pritchard: a life cut short
    Norman Barry Pritchard was the son of Beryl and Henry (Harry) Pritchard and brother to Beverley, Sandra and Gordon. In 1953 the Pritchards lived in the Wallamba Cabins situated on the River at Darawank…
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  • Captain John Gogerly
    In 1898 Gogerly’s name became legend when he ran into one of the fiercest storms to hit the east coast while sailing to Sydney in the “Venture”. He strapped himself to the tiller…
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Kevin Gilbert: activist, artist, author, playwright and poet
    Kevin Gilbert was born in Wiradjuri country near Condoblin in 1933. While in prison for murder he asked for books on…
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  • Bushman
    After the war, Mervyn and his family moved back to the Wallamba where he cut fence posts, palings and firewood for use by guesthouses, bakeries and the slaughterhouse…
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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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  • Formation of the QUOTA Club of Taree
    On Friday night the 20th August 1947 a meeting was called in the CWA rooms to form a Quota Club of Taree…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 1 Manning Street, Taree
    This building is a rare survivor. A purpose-built dental surgery, constructed for Cuth Haddan in 1938…
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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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  • 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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  • “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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  • Taree’s Volunteer Air Observers Corps
    Tom Dyball was not only science master at Taree High School during World War II, he was Zone Commandant of the Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC) in Taree…
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  • Purfleet Gum Leaf Band
    Gum leaf playing is deeply linked with the culture of First Australians who have always played this unique instrument. It is believed gum leaves were used in hunting, signalling, rituals, as spiritual instruments and even toys...
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  • Mudlarking in the Wallamba River
    For decades Graham Boyd dived along the riverbanks of the Wallamba River searching for artefacts…
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  • SS Urana
    The Urana proved a saviour for the crew of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving boat in February 1926 when…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Lincoln Brick Works, Wingham
    When travelling between Wingham and Taree it is hard to miss the landmark brick chimneys of the Lincoln Brick Works...
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  • 9 Smith Street, Taree
    The land on which the heritage-listed brick house at 9 Smith Street is situated, was part of the Taree West End Estate granted to William Wynter in June 1839...
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  • A Country Romance
    "A Country Romance", this was the newspaper headline when reporting the marriage of Phyllis Hope Lockyer and Arthur Finlay in Glenn Innes in April 1926. The event was widely reported because of the Bride’s age: she was only fourteen...
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Level Crossing Smash, Wingham 1956
    On 7th January 1956, around 9.50pm, the southern bound North Coast Mail train No. 14 collided with a 1950 Studebaker utility, on the Wingham-Taree Road level crossing…
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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Andre Majerszky and the ‘Iron Chief’
    In April 1928, while Andre Majersky was working as a photographer at the Manning Studios in Taree, an unusual opportunity presented itself…
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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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  • Taree Photographer: Robert Crombie
    This iconic photo of the first train arriving in Taree in 1913 was taken by photographer Robert Edward Crombie...
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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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  • 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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  • Christmas on the Wallamba
    The only decorations were puddings hanging on strings around the verandah, and a bunch of wild Christmas bells in the lounge…
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  • ‘Coneac George’ Gorton
    George Gorton was born at Bundabah in 1834. From the age of 28 he managed ‘Tibbuc’ Station on the Upper Manning…
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  • The Mustard Gas Men: Ross Ashley Bryan
    A photograph of a carved rock inscription outside a disused railway tunnel reveals a Taree man’s involvement in a top secret operation in WWII…
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  • 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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  • Harry Wilfred Webster
    Harry Wilfred Webster was born in Essex, England in 1885 and undertook his architectural training there...
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • George Stevens of 'Killarney' Dyers Crossing
    George Stevens was 79 years of age when he died at ‘Killarney’, Dyers Crossing surrounded by family. He had been active until four months prior to his death.
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  • Pipers Bay, Forster
    William Brisbane Piper born in 1844 at Brisbane Waters trained as a shipwright with his father. The last ship constructed by William’s father called ‘Jonathan’…
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Recent Posts
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