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…
Emmeline Ann Everingham – a right to vote
In the Port Macquarie Museum is an ‘Elector’s Right Residential Qualification’ for Emmeline Ann Everingham. In 1902 the Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act giving women over the age of 21 the right to vote…
How did Spence Street, Taree get its name?
Samuel Spence was born in Bradford, England in 1857. He joined the army as a young man but became interested in travel so joined the sea service where he gained navigational and marine engineer qualifications…
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…
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…
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’…
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…
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…
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…
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…