Unlocking the Past 2019

In this hot, hot summer the idea of diving into a clean, cool waterhole seems like a vision of heaven. One such spot, Ellalong Lagoon, is part of Cessnock’s swimming folklore. This beautiful, natural waterway was enormous and blessed with a continual flow of water.

Charles and Eva Jaggard are credited, along with many local young people, in developing the lagoon into a swimming pool. By the 1930s the lagoon boasted its own swimming club and its own organisation, the Ellalong Swimming Baths Committee, which charged an admission to swim in the lagoon.

The Committee even created a learner’s pool, by excavating part of the lagoon’s bank to form a shallow swimming area. This Committee was so organised that it arranged for a dedicated bus service to run from Aberdare to the lagoon every Sunday. It’s gala swimming and sports carnivals attracted competitors from premier amateur swimming clubs as far away as Newcastle.

Power was run to the lagoon from a nearby coal mine (possibly illegally), allowing lighting for night-time swimming events. A 6.7 metre tower with springboards was constructed for diving competitions and dressing sheds built. For entertainment the Bellbird Band played regularly on Sundays and sports days, creating a musical background for people picnicking in the landscaped grounds adjoining the lagoon.

In 1939 the Greta Army Camp opened and the following year a large contingent, estimated to be about 100 soldiers and officers, made a visit to the lagoon. The Secretary of the Ellalong Swimming Club, Charles Jaggard, was a former military man and so gave them a warm welcome. In patriotic solidarity he announced that any military personnel could use the lagoon free of charge whenever they wished.

Ellalong Lagoon was bought by Port Waratah Coal Services (PWCS) in 2012, purchased as an environmental offset for a giant T4 coal-loader. Under the terms of their acquisition of the lagoon and its surrounding lands PWCS is obliged to restore and enhance the area’s biodiversity features in order to boost migratory bird and fauna activity.

Here is a good drone view of the Ellalong Lagoon taken two years ago.

Sadly the lagoon has been badly hit by the drought and you can see a contemporary view of it taken this month.

In January 1947 the Hunter Valley was abuzz with film fever. The famed English film company, Ealing Studios, was to shoot a film in Australia staring our own home-grown international cinema star, Chips Rafferty.

The film was ‘Eureka Stockade’ a re-telling of the 1854 rebellion on the Ballarat goldfields. Chips was to be supported by an English cast, who were flown out to Australia, along with cameramen, sound engineers, two directors and other technical staff. The film would be the most expensive and most ambitious ever produced in Australia.

After visiting potential sites across NSW, a property belonging to Mr. C. Taylor at Blind Creek, Glendonbrook just outside Singleton was chosen. A replica of the Victorian gold diggings was constructed, along with a complete reproduction of the village of Ballarat.

The director of ‘Eureka Stockade’, Harry Watt, approached the Australian military asking for soldiers from the nearby Greta Military Camp to be made available to work on the film set. Although World War II was over soldiers were still on site at Greta, with the camp now being used as a training base for troops heading to join the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan.

The soldiers’ expertise with explosives was just what was needed. The soil had to be blasted to create holes and mounds, so that it would resemble a gold digging site. Hundreds of soldiers would also be perfect as extras in background scenes and those with horse riding skills were particularly sought out.

The military agreed. Ealing Studios promised they would re-pay the Australian government’s co-operation by making a professional recruitment film for them to use. Despite the fact that the soldiers were largely keen for a moment of cinematic glory and that the government had approved their involvement, by late 1948 a media controversy had erupted.

Why, asked publications such as tabloid newspaper Smith’s Weekly, were soldiers being paid from the taxpayer’s purse to pursue a film career? Even worse, the soldiers were doing menial work building sets and working as cheap on-set labourers. Smith’s Weekly was relentless in its condemnation and their pressure led to questions being asked in the Australian parliament by Country Party Senator Walter Cooper.

It ended up being a media storm in a tea cup. The Greta soldiers kept up their film work, but the director Harry Watt wasn’t happy. When the filming was finished he jumped on a plane and flew straight back to London - Ealing Studios didn’t ever make the recruitment film.

Every bushfire season we are comforted by the fact that they are there, but did you ever think that there was a time before our local fire brigades?

In the middle of a heatwave in February 1905 Kurri Kurri residents attended a public meeting in Central Park, now Rotary Park, to discuss forming a fire brigade for their town. The response was a unanimous ‘yes’.

While enthusiasm was high, the fledgling brigade soon hit some serious financial stumbling blocks. They tried to borrow some spare fire-fighting equipment from other fire stations, but were unsuccessful and their applications for government grants were refused.

How could the brigade raise the funds necessary to equip themselves and build a fire station? Many suggestions were put forward, but extraordinarily the one which was adopted was that the firemen form a ‘minstrel troupe’ and that they put on fundraising concerts. So the Kurri Kurri Fire Brigade Minstrel and Variety Company formed and their first concert was April that year.

The program consisted of a lot of singing of songs, a mime performance of a shoot-out in American cowboy style, yet more singing of songs, with the evening concluding with a short comical farce which brought much laughter from the audience.

Success! In May 1905 the brigade was given a grant of land on Cessnock Street (now Lang Street) for a fire station. It was an excellent site, next to the new Police Station which was being constructed on the corner of Victoria Street.  While they waited for their own fire bell the Headmaster of Kurri Kurri Public School offered use of the school bell to ring when they needed to warn residents of a fire.

As there was no formal, just on-the-job training, the Minmi Fire Brigade stepped in to assist them with instruction and the Carrington Fire Station sold them a hose and bell.

The Kurri Kurri Volunteer Fire Brigade was up and running, but they had complex emergencies to deal with. As well as the standard domestic fires, it had to attend colliery fires which could be explosive and unpredictable and the brigade didn’t have to wait too long to see how dire this could be.

In October they were called to a serious explosion and fire in the nearby Stanford Merthyr Colliery. Six mine employees were killed, nine injured and the brigade had a true baptism of fire as it worked to extinguish the blaze at the pit top, pouring water down the tunnel to quell the fire inside.

Kurri Kurri Fire Brigade we salute you!

Does land have a memory? Many cultural historians believe so. In our region we have an extraordinary site at Greta, which despite looking quite ordinary actually carries in its landscape the memories, fears and dreams of thousands of people.

Just outside the township of Greta is the site of the former Army Camp and Migrant Camp. This place has a complex history which bookends World War II. Originally a number of rural properties its story becomes transformed when Australia enters World War II on 3 September 1939.

Two months later the Federal Department of the Army compulsorily acquired 2,930 acres of this grazing land from local farmers, repurposing it to become one of Australia’s largest military training camps. During the course of the war Greta Army Camp saw thousands of soldiers pass through its gates.

When on leave these soldiers came into Cessnock and surrounding towns and the sight of men in military uniforms on the street became the norm. Soldiers stationed at Greta were not locals from the Hunter Valley, most were from Sydney, others from far-flung regional centres.

They received a warm welcome in Cessnock. Some welcomes were particularly warm, with budding romances seeing some soldiers returning after overseas service, marrying local girls and settling here permanently. The war may have been over, but this parcel of land was about to have a dramatic new story.

In 1949 the land of was transferred to the Department of Immigration and from then until 1960 it became the Greta Migrant Camp. It was the first Australian home for tens of thousands of Europeans leaving the aftermath of war-torn Europe for a new life abroad. The people living at Greta Migrant Camp unintentionally, in turn, became the face of Australia’s new post-World War II immigration policy.

The Australian Army resumed control of the camp site in 1962. In 1980 the land was auctioned and it was bought by the Windt family; it remains privately owned by them.

In 1981 Cessnock Council named the section of road between Talga Road and Greta Railway Station, which ran past the camp site, ‘Camp Road’. It’s a fitting memorial to those two camps which had such an impact on our Local Government Area and more broadly on Australian society as a whole.  

May Day, celebrated on 1 May, was once one of the biggest community parades in our region. Months before the event May Day committees in Kurri Kurri, Paxton and Cessnock were hard at work overseeing details for the up-coming celebrations.

A sign of how locally significant the day was can be gauged by the fact that the NSW government gazetted May Day as a public holiday for the Municipality of Cessnock and the Kearsley Shire.

The history of May Day in Australia spans over a century and its celebration in the Hunter Valley is almost as long. It is an international day of commemoration which honours those who struggled and succeeded in changing labour laws and conditions to ensure fairer working conditions for everyone.

Despite its political origins our May Day parades were usually more festive than radical. Eighty years ago, in 1939, whole communities took part in May Day parades with disparate groups marching together: trade unionists walked with business owners, political campaigners with school children, Council workers with sporting and cultural groups.

In Kurri Kurri that year the extensive parade stretched down Lang Street and contained a notable sporting presence including a large number of cyclists, believed the be the greatest ever seen in the district. At Paxton their May Day march finished with an enthusiastic sports carnival at the local football ground.

At Cessnock the May Day parade saw a huge contingent take part including: representatives of the miners’ lodges, who for the first time abandoned their union banners and entered decorated floats instead; an impressive show from the Cessnock Co-operative Store; the Miners’ Federation and its Women’s Auxiliary; local branches of the Communist Party and even Council staff.

In 1939, for the first time, a May Day Cup was awarded to the best display in the parade and this inaugural cup was won by the Elrington Miners’ Lodge. Meanwhile in the classroom students were competing in an essay-writing competition with parents urged to tell their children about the importance of May Day in order to ‘stimulate their thoughts on this very important question’.

After the parade the Cessnock Showground came alive with a sports carnival, rides and races, novelty events and the distribution of lollies, fruit and milk to children, who were advised to ‘bring their own cup or mug’. 

This year marks the centenary of the devastating influenza pandemic, which swept across countries and continents killing between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. Arriving in Australia in late 1918, this deadly disease was actually an influenza pneumonia hybrid – a terrifying combination. With effective antibiotics still decades away death rates were high.

The first case reached Newcastle in February 1919 and spread to the Hunter Valley shortly after. Kurri Kurri was severely hit and with no isolation ward in the local hospital an emergency influenza hospital was set up in the (now demolished) Drill Hall in Lang Street.

Coal mines lay idle as large swathes of the work force were too ill to work. One of the unusual aspects of this influenza was that it attacked young adults with as much ferocity as the sick or elderly.

The government’s fear that coal production on the South Maitland fields was completely threatened saw the extraordinary introduction of physical barriers around Cessnock to isolate the town and so protect its miners from influenza.

Isolation was introduced in April, during one of the peaks of the disease, with cordons on Allandale Road, at Bellbird and on Neath Hill to prevent people entering and leaving. Later it was extended as far as Wollombi. The isolation area was greatly resented by local residents, with many businesses forced to close their doors and a great deal of hardship ensued.

Air borne diseases cannot be contained by barriers, so soon the dreaded influenza hit Cessnock. The classrooms at Aberdare Public School were transformed into an isolation hospital, with children sent home during the height of the epidemic.

Across the road Aberdare Park became a quarantine camp. Rows of tents were set up, military style, to accommodate out-of-town miners who were required to spend four days there while being monitored by Red Cross volunteers. If they displayed no flu symptoms they were cleared to work. 

The wisdom of sleeping outside, in a tent, heading into a Cessnock winter and during an influenza epidemic seems medically questionable. Obviously those who didn’t succumb to the flu were hardy indeed!

By late 1919 the rate of new infection had almost stopped, but the Australian death toll over the year had climbed to 13,000-15,000. The mortality rate among Indigenous people was as high as 50 per cent in some areas, but by the end of 1919 the influenza pandemic, the greatest infectious disease of the 20^th century, was finally over.  

One of the intriguing aspects of local history is that sometimes places of great significance aren’t even in the local area. For us one such special place is found on the shores of Lake Macquarie, the lovely Speers Point Park.

In 1887 Lake Macquarie Council bought 20 acres of waterfront land from William Speer, a wealthy Sydney businessman, opening the site in 1888 with great fanfare as Lake Macquarie Park.

This grassy lakeside park soon became a favoured picnic spot for weekend outings, attracting crowds from Newcastle and the lower Hunter Valley. On a typical Sunday in the 1920s a band would play in the rotunda and the little shop in the park would supply hot water for tea along with ice-creams and other confectionary. An open-sided hall often hosted concerts and dancing.

A large area of low-lying swampy land adjoining the park was bought by the Council in 1938, filled in and the park further extended. The peninsula of land jutting into Lake Macquarie was re-named Speers Point along with the park. 

For decades Speers Point Park became the favoured destination for the much-anticipated colliery picnic days. Hired double-decker buses bought families, workmates and friends to this annual event which had a large program of well-organised sporting competitions and games: sack races, tug-of-war, running and novelty races and of course cricket. The program was taken very seriously and cups and ribbons awarded to the winners.

But it wasn’t just the coal miners who knew what a great place Speers Point Park was. From the 1920s onwards many Cessnock and Kurri Kurri people made the park their favoured destination for outings: school and Sunday school annual picnics, staff picnics from local businesses such as Rover Motors, pensioner and retiree groups, retired miners’ societies, RSLs and ex-soldiers clubs and the Cessnock and Kurri Kurri Co-operative Societies.

The regular presence of people from the Cessnock Local Government Area was noticed by Lake Macquarie residents such as Gwen Stevens (nee Probert) who in her childhood memoir A Walk by the Lake recalls the liveliness of Speers Point Park:    

"Families came to enjoy a leisurely outing. A picnic in the park, swim in the baths, stroll along the foreshore or a listen to the brass band in the rotunda. Miners and their families from the Coalfields would spent the entire Christmas holidays camping at Speers Point Camping Reserve.”  

With the Tour de France having just been run for another year, it’s fascinating to know that there is a long Australian connection with the race.

Hubert Ferdinand Opperman, known to his fans as ‘Oppy’, was a much-loved Australian cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s, whose amazing achievements on two wheels gave him star status amongst his legions of fans. He first competed in the Tour de France in 1928, being one of only 39 riders to finish the demanding event out of the 169 who set off from the starting line.

Oppy’s first taste of cycling success was in 1921 when as a 17 y.o. he placed third in a gruelling 160 kilometre race. His prize was a new Malvern Star bike worth a princely £10, significant because it began an association with that company which would last for decades.

Oppy went on to win hundreds of races in Australia, the U.K. and throughout Europe, breaking world records over and over again. In 1932 he cycled 1,000 kms in 24 hours at the Melbourne Motordrome, broke five British cycling records in 1934 and two years later cycled 651 miles from Brisbane to Sydney in 47 hours 10 minutes.

In 1936 Hubert Opperman undertook a tour along the east coast to meet his legions of fans and deliver lectures about cycling and luckily for us he took a detour through the Hunter Valley. Local cycle shop and Malvern Star distributor, C.C.C. Motor Works, took full advantage of his much-anticipated visit. Pictures of Opperman adorned their store and they made a tantalising promise – if locals dropped off their autograph books they would guarantee that Oppy would sign them.

On 18 June 1936 Opperman and his wife Mavys drove from Maitland to the top of Neath Hill. Here he left his car, got on his bike and accompanied by over 100 local cyclists rode into Cessnock. Upon arrival he was given a civic reception by the Mayor, Alderman George Lowe.

During the day he spoke to hundreds of students from local schools on the health benefits of cycling and later appeared at the Empire Theatre thrilling the audience with stories of his world famous rides. In the evening he was the guest of honour at a Cessnock Business Mens’ Club dinner at the Northumberland Hotel.

Oppy made time to get across to Kurri Kurri where he addressed a large group in the Royal Theatre, urging the children present to lead good, moral and sober lives as they needed to not just be good athletes, but good citizens. Oppy particularly focused on the boys, telling them to “go in for clean sport” – presumably cycling! 

Eighty years ago this month a six-year war began which would go on to take more human lives than any other previous world conflict and still remains humanity’s bloodiest encounter - World War II (1939-1945).

Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 impelled Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany and so a new world war had begun. Two days later Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ declared it was his “melancholy duty”’ to inform Australian citizens that due to these international events Australia too was now at war.

Cessnock Council acted quickly on 5 September pledging the Council’s loyalty to Britain. A fortnight later over 300 women met to form a Women’s Branch of the newly created National Emergency Services, they urged women to get involved in war effort and “assist in the defence of the civilian population”.

The Branch was given use of a room in the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall and immediately began organising twice-weekly first aid classes which were taught by members of the Cessnock Ambulance Brigade. The NES gained a popular following and more branches opened at Kearsley, Kurri Kurri and Pelaw Main.

Canny local bus company, Rover Motors, was meanwhile eyeing the new army camp site proposed for Greta and the potential new customers it represented. They soon were granted permission by Kearsley Shire Council and Cessnock Council to run regular half-hourly services directly between the camp and Cessnock. Cessnock Chamber of Commerce were thrilled at the opportunity for local businesses to benefit from this influx of soldiers.

Cessnock Council, meanwhile, saw the soldiers from the new Army Camp as a great opportunity to promote the town. They were encouraged to join sporting groups, buy from local businesses – who were asked to give them discounts – and use the town’s facilities, including its new swimming pool.

The seriousness of the war came home to local residents powerfully when Colonel E. S. Anderson addressed a packed meeting at the Regent Theatre on 8 September. He warned that Cessnock should be prepared to get actively involved in the war, our location as an inland centre might be required to provide shelter for Newcastle residents fleeing an enemy attack. The Colonel explained that the coastal city was preparing for possible shelling from the sea, an event which was to come true on 8 June 1942, but not from a German U-boat as anticipated, but a Japanese submarine. 

Did you know that many humble horse troughs have a fascinating history, the legacy of a couple whose compassion for animals has endured long after their deaths?

English born George Bills and Annis Swann met in Brisbane after they had both immigrated separately to Australia. They married and businessman George ran a company in Sydney before he and Annis retired to live in Victoria. Both lifelong animal lovers George became a Life Governor of the RSPCA in 1924.

Annis died in 1910 and George, a very wealthy man, died 17 years later. He made an extraordinary bequest in his will, that a trust fund be set up to:

‘…construct and erect and pay for horse troughs wherever they may be of the opinion that such horse troughs are desirable for the relief of horse and other dumb animals either in Australasia, in the British Islands or in any other part of the world…”

George left a large amount of money to realise his vision. Each trough cost £13 plus transport and installation and this enabled about 700 horse troughs to be built. They were eventually located both in Australia and in other countries, with our troughs mainly in NSW and Victoria and most constructed during the 1930s. Each of the troughs had a decorative piece at the back with the words ‘Donated by Annis & George Bills Australia’.

We are blessed to have three Bills horse troughs locally at Branxton, Greta and Kearsley. In Branxton the horse trough can be found in John Rose Avenue, it has been painted and is now often used as a flower box.

At Greta the trough sits in High Street on the outskirts of town. Its location reflects that this used to be the main street through Greta, before the highway, so therefore the route of horse-drawn vehicles. The Kearsley horse trough has a lovely location in front of the Kearsley Public School, with one ex-pupil recalling it being used, decades ago, to dunk other students in.

Unfortunately many of the troughs have been removed, but it is estimated that worldwide there are still about 300 in existence. The horses may be gone and the water troughs now empty, but these two wonderful animal lovers have left a legacy of their kindness in our local landscape. It’s a fitting memory to their compassion. Thank you Annis and George! 

Scouting has had a long and enthusiastic history across our local area, with the first Cessnock scouts formed over 100 years ago in March 1915.

The scouting movement, then for boys only, was promoted as character building, with the parent of a scout enthusing to local newspaper, the Cessnock Eagle, that it ‘promotes and develops integrity, engenders discipline, inculcates resourcefulness…and goes a long way towards inspiring a boy with pluck, chivalry, patriotism and character generally’.

Kurri Kurri boy scouts had been operating since 1916, but they were not an officially recognised troop by Scouts Australia, but instead organised by St. Paul’s Church of England. Nonetheless Scout Master Robert Spinks knew how to keep the boys on their toes, with an 18 mile march to Mt. Vincent and back again, overnight camps and an emphasis on prayer.

The first officially recognised Kurri Kurri Boy Scout group formed in mid-1934 and its initial investiture of scouts was attended by a large and enthusiastic group of parents and scouts from nearby troops. They didn’t waste any time. Braving a Hunter Valley winter the scouts went into camp in July and August, in particularly local style, camping at Scout Haven on Wallis Creek, Richmond Vale, on land owned by the nearby Richmond Main Colliery.

The Police Service has always had a natural affinity with the Boy Scout movement and that connection also has a long history. The Kurri Kurri police immediately became a sponsor of their local troop and in August formed an enthusiastic committee, under the presidency of local police officer Sergeant W. Wood and Constable C. Dimmock as Secretary, with the aim of holding Kurri Kurri’s first police ball in just two months’ time.

They did it! In October 1936 the Police Ball was held with all money raised going to support the Kurri Kurri Boy Scouts and buy equipment for the troop. The ball was held in the Ambulance Practice Hall, recently refurbished back to its former glory.

It was such a success that it was held again the following year with this ball even bigger as 500 people danced the night away. For women, formal long dresses were the order of the day adorned with corsages of fresh flowers. Miss Daphne White of Weston was chosen as Belle of the Ball, albeit with a lot of competition from other young women in beautiful ‘spring and pastel-coloured creations’. A glamourous night for a wonderful cause indeed. 

Ninety years ago the run up to Christmas in our local area was nothing to look forward to. Celebrations would be muted and presents few – if any. The Great Depression was biting hard, with the coal industry particularly badly hit and our region suffering terribly.

In response to this desperate economic climate colliery owners attempted to secure their businesses and to increase power over their workers. In the Hunter Valley the Northern Collieries Association was formed to collectively represent mine owners. On 14 February 1929 it issued all its employees two weeks’ notice to accept onerous new working conditions; the workers refused.

In response colliery owners locked their mines across the Hunter Valley depriving the miners of work; ‘the Lockout’ had begun. Nine months later, on 16 December, the mounting anger borne of poverty and desperation boiled over at Rothbury Colliery culminating in the violent industrial event now known as the Rothbury riot.

Over 70 years later a chance conversation would bring this story to the screen.

In 2003 Newcastle filmmaker Greg Hall and his then business partner Diane Michael were looking for a local story to make into a film or documentary which would resonate with an international audience.

Musician and writer Mark Bean told them about a coal miner who had been arrested and imprisoned after taking part in the Rothbury riot. It became an ‘ah-ha!’ moment for Greg and Diane who were immediately hooked. They could see there was a much bigger story waiting to be told. Greg explained:

“Our biggest challenge was how to get to the emotional and historical heart of the events while peeling back the layers of myth that had been spun around ‘the Lockout’. We wanted to introduce a new audience to this story.

“A major coup was discovering that a number of ‘Lockout’ and Rothbury Riot veterans were still alive with a vivid recall of those years. But they were elderly, so the clock was ticking to capture those eye-witness accounts before it was too late.”

The result was the documentary ‘Lockout’ first screened on History channel, Foxtel Australia and New Zealand in August 2007 and at Cessnock Leagues Club.