Unlocking the Past 2023

World War I remains the worst conflict, in terms of deaths and casualties, in which Australia has been involved. From a population of fewer than five million people, 416,809 enlisted, with more than 60,000 killed and 156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken prisoner.

After the war ended there was a mass return of Australian soldiers who had been on active service, many of whom were suffering the after-effects of this brutal conflict. Physical injuries, long-lasting psychological distress and an inability to settle back into civilian life were common.

The Soldier Settlement Scheme was one of a number of repatriation policies enacted in the aftermath of World War I to assist returning service personnel. The Returned Soldiers Settlement Act (1916) saw Federal and State governments working with returned service organisations to enable returned soldiers (and a small select band of nurses) to take up small rural allotments and settle on the land. In NSW over 9,000 people took up the challenge.

These small rural holdings were devoted to a variety of agricultural purposes – viticulture, raising chickens, growing wheat, dairying and keeping pigs and other farm animals. There were Soldier Settlement Schemes across our Local Government Area.

A common misconception is that land was given to former soldiers in recognition of their active military service. In fact, it was run by a loans scheme to soldiers, with interest payable on the loan, which enabled returned servicemen (and occasionally women) to either purchase blocks of land or improve existing holdings.

One such local settlement was the Weston Soldiers’ Settlement. Here soldiers were settled with an allotment of chickens, chicken wire and material for sheds. This settlement was planned to be a profitable poultry farming centre. Overall the planned poultry farms were spectacularly unsuccessful and many men left life on the land for more lucrative work in the growing local collieries.

In 1969 the Department of Lands assigned a new name, Loxford, to the suburb ‘unofficially known as Weston Soldiers’ Settlement within the City of Greater Cessnock about one and one-half miles north of Kurri Kurri’. Two years later it defined the streets in the locality now named Loxford…[are]: Hart Road, Dickson Road, McGarva Avenue, Scales Avenue, Horton Road, Dawes Avenue, Lomas Road, Wright Avenue, Bowditch Avenue and McLeod Road. 

Sightings of a mysterious big cat in the Hunter have been reported for decades, but here at Cessnock Library two of our own Librarians have had their own close up encounters with this elusive creature.

The first goes back to about 1999, when our Librarian was a child living behind the Rover bus depot. Her home backed onto bushland, a natural playground for the siblings, it was here she had her first sighting of the cat. She described:

“a very large black cat-like creature sitting just before the trees on a slight incline. As we approached it turned and left, but we saw it another couple of times in similar spots over the next few weeks.”

Nine years ago her husband was driving at night on Wollombi Road near Ellalong and saw something similar. She explained:

“His attention was drawn by bright, reflective eyes on the side of the road ahead of him. The creature proceeded to run across the road, causing him to slow down. He described it as being a panther, or a giant black cat…”.

A year ago another one of our Librarians had an encounter with the cat. She was driving down Ellalong Road, on her way to the town, when near the Ellalong sign, on the right-hand side of the road, the cat appeared. She recalled:

“A big cat crossed the road, it was about 10 metres in front of my car. It was confident and unhurried. It strolled across the road and disappeared into ferny undergrowth behind the suburb sign on the left. It did not appear to have what I would describe as the musculature or shape of a domestic feral. It was large, black and I would describe it as somewhere between a Puma and Panther.”

People who have seen the animal give consistent descriptions: a very large size (too big even for a feral cat), jet-black colour and its confident demeanour, moving with a slinky power.

Corrabare State Forest has been pinpointed as a possible home. With its wild terrain, overgrown tracks, ridgelines and valleys it would provide easy and ample protective cover. As this forest adjoins large areas of the Cessnock Local Government Area, potentially the cat-like creature could appear from the forest and disappear back into the forest’s protective wilderness if it felt under threat.

Have you seen the black panther- like cat? Contact us at Cessnock Library to tell us your stories!

Baddeley Park in Vincent Street, South Cessnock is an important sportsground for rugby league, soccer, hockey, cricket, dog obedience and community events. It is also the location for Cessnock Sportsground, a premier facility which has hosted the Australian Wallabies training camps.

But how did the park get its name?

John ‘Jack’ Baddeley was an English-born coal miner who rose up the ranks almost to the top of NSW politics. He immigrated to Australia as a child and in his 20s moved to Cessnock, where he worked at Aberdare Extended and Neath Collieries. When not working underground he was an enthusiastic sportsman excelling in cricket and football where he played at first-grade level.

Always a political animal Baddeley moved from Secretary of the Aberdare Extended miners’ lodge up to become the Northern District President of the Colliery Employees’ Federation in 1914. Baddeley was also a Councillor on Cessnock Shire Council as well as serving on the boards of the local Co-operative Store and Cessnock District Hospital.

In 1915 he became the first President of the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees’ Federation (known as the Miners’ Federation), a significant union which brought all Australian coalminers into one powerful union.

State politics beckoned and Jack Baddeley become a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1922, firstly as member for Newcastle and from 1925 until 1949 as the member for Cessnock. He was continually re-elected as the locals held him in great affection and saw him as one of their own. Baddeley held power during a significant social and economic period in Australian history, which saw two world wars and an economic Great Depression.

Baddeley was strongly associated with the coal industry, from working at the coal face as a miner to eventually being a member of the Federal government’s Coal Industry Special Tribunal. Given this it is surprising to know that in his personal life Jack Baddeley was a lover of the environment, a keen gardener and student of natural history. He was the principal mover behind the Fauna Protection Act (1948).

In 1926 the South Cessnock Progress Association lobbied successfully for a local park to be re-named Baddeley Park in his honour. The park was extended and developed and officially opened three years later. In 1931, as part of the park’s improvements, a large fernery was built on the grounds, it seemed a fitting nod to the nature-loving coal miner.  

On 15 May Australian Fashion Week kicks off and why should our Big City cousins take all the glory?

Regional towns are no slackers in the fashion stakes, despite what those outside the metropolises might think. In the Hunter Valley the city of Cessnock and the nearby town of Kurri Kurri for decades had their own dress shops, fashion accessory outlets and stylish shoe shops.

Most inspiringly we used to make many of our own garments here in the Hunter. One significant outlet was Bonds, an Australian company founded in 1923 by George Bond as Australia’s first cotton spinning operation.

In 1947 they opened a factory in the centre of Cessnock where multiple generations of women worked. It was one of the Hunter Valley’s biggest employers and at its height 400 people worked there, with the factory making the uniforms for the Sydney Olympic Games. Sadly the factory closed in 2009.

Happily for heritage, Australian Fashion Week also coincides with the Australian Heritage Festival. At Cessnock Library we’ve decided to celebrate fashion and style from smart casual to extravaganza overload, in an exhibition ‘Frocks in the ‘Nock and Kurri Kurri couture’.

Come and see local ladies in their finery, going shopping at the Co-operative Store, entertaining in their social clubs and even looking good while politically organising. Too many frocks are never enough!

For the opening day of Australian Fashion Week, Cessnock Library will be hosting a visit of Curators from the Australian Museum of Clothing and Textile Inc. Australia's only dedicated clothing museum, which is located in Maitland. Its collection includes clothing and accessories from the 1820s to the present day.

They will be showcasing items of vintage clothing from their collection and explaining why they collect what they do. The stories behind the clothes brings them alive and proves that these garments are much more than just beautiful objects.  

In Cessnock there has been no more legendary crime and policing figure than James William Booth, known to all as Billy Booth.

Born in Leichhardt in 1887 Billy spent most of his career as a police officer in Cessnock. He joined the NSW Police Force as a Probationary Constable in 1911 and by the end of the year was stationed here.

Two years later he married Hilda Adeline Turnbull and they had two daughters. It appears to have been a long and happy marriage, with the family settled at 13 Dudley Street, Cessnock.

Billy Booth was known to be tough, a so-called ‘old school cop’, but he was always fair. Even when he had to attend miners’ strikes and rallies in his official police capacity he kept the miners’ respect. Bill described the miners as: “Good people to live amongst, [I] admire their courage in times of danger and stress, their kindness and generosity to those in need”.

He was scrupulously honest and despised police officers who took bribes or kickbacks. During his career this caused a lot of trouble between himself and corrupt police. 

Billy was known for his unorthodox policing methods, including bailing up wayward youths to give them a talking to and maybe a slap or two. Many a troublesome child was warned by their parents to behave or “Billy Booth will get ya!” In this way he became a local celebrity - everyone knew Billy Booth. At his retirement he was described as being so well-known he was “part of the landscape” of the city.

In the 1930s he even had a local greyhound named after him, ‘Billy Booth’. True to its namesake ‘Billy Booth’ (the dog) was a standout, winning many races locally and in Sydney and being known as ‘the Cessnock champion’.

Apart from short stints at East Maitland and Carrington Billy Booth spent his entire career stationed at Cessnock. On his retirement in 1947, as a First-class Sergeant, he held the police record for the longest continuous service at one station. After retirement the Booths continued to live at the family home in Dudley Street for the rest of their lives. Hilda Booth died in 1962 and Billy less than a year later.

 In Cessnock there has been no more legendary crime and policing figure than James William Booth, known to all as Billy Booth.

Born in Leichhardt in 1887 Billy spent most of his career as a police officer in Cessnock. He joined the NSW Police Force as a Probationary Constable in 1911 and by the end of the year was stationed here.

Two years later he married Hilda Adeline Turnbull and they had two daughters. It appears to have been a long and happy marriage, with the family settled at 13 Dudley Street, Cessnock.

Billy Booth was known to be tough, a so-called ‘old school cop’, but he was always fair. Even when he had to attend miners’ strikes and rallies in his official police capacity he kept the miners’ respect. Bill described the miners as: “Good people to live amongst, [I] admire their courage in times of danger and stress, their kindness and generosity to those in need”.

He was scrupulously honest and despised police officers who took bribes or kickbacks. During his career this caused a lot of trouble between himself and corrupt police. 

Billy was known for his unorthodox policing methods, including bailing up wayward youths to give them a talking to and maybe a slap or two. Many a troublesome child was warned by their parents to behave or “Billy Booth will get ya!” In this way he became a local celebrity - everyone knew Billy Booth. At his retirement he was described as being so well-known he was “part of the landscape” of the city.

In the 1930s he even had a local greyhound named after him, ‘Billy Booth’. True to its namesake ‘Billy Booth’ (the dog) was a standout, winning many races locally and in Sydney and being known as ‘the Cessnock champion’.

Apart from short stints at East Maitland and Carrington Billy Booth spent his entire career stationed at Cessnock. On his retirement in 1947, as a First-class Sergeant, he held the police record for the longest continuous service at one station. After retirement the Booths continued to live at the family home in Dudley Street for the rest of their lives. Hilda Booth died in 1962 and Billy less than a year later.

If you’ve driven down Vincent Street Cessnock, or past the magnificent Mount Vincent, you may have wondered why there are so many significant places named ‘Vincent’ in our Local Government Area.

Both are named for early English settler Robert Vincent who arrived in Australian in 1828. He had been a farmer in his native Cornwall and brought all his property and substantial cash reserves with him when he emigrated, with the aim of becoming a self-sufficient farmer.

Vincent petitioned the NSW Governor, Ralph Darling, for a land grant and successfully received an allocation of 640 acres. He chose to take it in the valley of Mulbring, near the majestic mountain which now bears his name.

Now settled, Robert married Catherine Ferguson, a widow with three children and they had two children of their own. In a situation which seems all too familiar to contemporary audiences, this blended family struggled to create a workable life together. Internal family frictions and personality clashes caused the couple to separate in the mid-1850s.

Not helping the family dynamics was that Robert and Catherine were both keen drinkers and local newspapers report drunken arguments, claims of trespass and theft by family members from Robert’s properties. In 1856 Robert placed a notice in the Maitland Mercury stating he would not be liable for any debts incurred by his wife, a public humiliation for Catherine and no doubt a source of lively local gossip. 

Robert Vincent died as the result of a drunken argument in Ellalong in April 1861. His death was reported in the Sydney Mail:

It appeared that he had been drinking very hard for some time previous to his death, and one day last week he, with one or two of our neighbours, were drinking together. A few words, not of a very pleasant nature, were exchanged between them, which moved a young man, by way of a joke, he struck the deceased with his open hand about the head and…without the slightest intention of hurting him. But he fell on the boards, the back of his head being much hurt in the fall.

The unnamed young man was acquitted, the incident deemed an accidental fall. It seems an inglorious end to the Cornish farmer’s high hopes for a prosperous and respectable life as a gentleman farmer in Australia. 

Tragedy at Bellbird: centenary of the Hunter’s worst colliery disaster

The 1^st of September 1923 started like any other day in Bellbird. Just after lunchtime workers rostered on the afternoon shift at nearby Bellbird Colliery headed underground. Within a couple of hours they would all be dead in what is still the greatest coal mining disaster in Hunter Valley history.

The first sign something was wrong happened shortly after the men started work at 1.00pm. Smoke was detected, then a fire, which rapidly became out of control. In all seven explosions were heard. Carbon monoxide flooded the mine, killing the miners and six pit horses.

Back at the pit top as the seriousness of the situation became apparent there were  scenes of extraordinary heroism. Colliery workmates of the miners insisted on entering the mine, with no protective equipment, only damp handkerchiefs tied around their faces. They recovered 15 bodies, but tragically one of the rescuers also lost his life.

As conditions deteriorated the heart-breaking decision was made to seal the mine, to control the fire, limit the chance of more explosions and stop the spread of poisonous gases. It was agreed that, unfortunately, no-one could still be alive. Still inside, now entombed, were six miners whose bodies had not been recovered.

A couple of days later a public mass funeral for the deceased miners was held in Cessnock. Drawing extraordinary crowds, with estimates of 25,000 people lining the route, the funeral procession left the Soldiers Memorial Hall in Vincent Street and proceeded to Cessnock Cemetery.

It was led by massed colliery bands from Cessnock, Weston, Abermain and Kurri Kurri. The coffins were carried on open top motor lorries which had been draped in black fabric, tied with purple ribbons and covered in wreaths of flowers.

Official figures were that 21 women were widowed and 41 children lost their fathers. However, some of the wives were pregnant and children born after the disaster did not appear in the official numbers. 

Nine months passed before it was safe enough for rescue teams to re-enter the mine and look for bodies. For the first time the new ‘Proto’ mines rescue suits were used, which allowed the men to move deeper into the pit. Over the next couple of months the remains of five of the six missing miners were found, but the body of the final lost miner, Malcolm Bailey, was not recovered until 1965.

A free event commemorating the centenary of the disaster will be held at Cessnock Library on 1 September 6.00pm-7.00pm.

Australia’s first Prime Minister was Member for the Hunter

It’s not just our current member for the Hunter, Dan Repacholi, who cuts a big figure in Canberra. No less than the first Australian Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, called the Federal electorate of Hunter his own.

Hunter was one of the original 65 electorates created by Federation. The first candidate for this newly created seat was Edmund Barton, a 51-year-old barrister, who was an ardent believer that Australia’s destiny lay as a nation, not as a series of States.

After the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed on 1 January 1901 Barton started campaigning to become the first Prime Minister of our new nation. He was already a seasoned politician, having entered NSW Parliament in 1879 and served as Attorney-General for a number of years.

Barton opened his election campaign at West Maitland. His policies were ideologically mixed, he supported a ‘white Australia’, but also believed the Government should be responsible for providing old-age pensions. He reluctantly supported a woman’s right to vote – a curious blind spot for a man who’d witnessed his own exceptionally well-educated mother, Mary Louisa Barton, raise a large family while running a girls’ school.

When all the other candidates for the seat of Hunter withdrew from the campaign Barton sailed in, becoming our first local member on 30 March 1901. He can be forgiven for his earlier reluctance to support women’s suffrage because a notable achievement of his government was passing the Commonwealth Franchise Act (1902) which allowed women to vote in Federal elections.

In September 1903 he resigned after a series of political clashes including with the  Governor-General. A smooth path out of parliament seemed to have been laid out for him, a few days after leaving he became a Justice of the newly established High Court of Australia.

Barton was married to Newcastle-born Jeannie Ross and they appear to have had a loving marriage and a happy family. Edmund Barton’s open affection for his children was rare at a time when upper class fathers seldomly expressed warmth to their offspring in public.

In December 1919 Barton and Jeannie headed off to the Blue Mountains on holidays, staying at the grand Hydro Majestic Hotel for Christmas and the New Year. Tragedy struck suddenly on the morning of 7 January when Barton died of a heart attack at the hotel. He was 71 years old. 

The Local Studies collection at Cessnock Library is a specialised local history collection. It contains original material in a wide range of formats: documents, photographs, audio-visual material, maps and plans, artworks, oral histories and objects of many different kinds. If it relates to the Cessnock Local Government Area it can find a home in our collection.

One of the more unusual objects in our collection is a doll which is over 100 years old. It is important to us as it tells the story of Welsh immigration to our local area, a significant part of our emigrant and coal mining history.

In the 19^th century specific British communities were targeted for assisted migration to Australia because of their agricultural or industrial skills. The first coal miners who came to the Hunter Valley brought their expertise in underground coal mining which had been honed in the mines of northern England and Wales.

The doll in our collection was a third birthday present from a Welsh couple, Emma and Tom Jenkins, to their daughter Nell. The family lived in the village of Blaenrhondda, a coal mining village. In 1924 they immigrated to Australia, settling in Cessnock. Tom Jenkins, like the other men in his family, worked as a coal miner.

Despite the fact that Nell was 18 years old when she came to Australia she chose to bring her childhood doll with her, clearly it still had a strong significance, linking her directly to her childhood on the other side of the world. Nell eventually married a fellow Welsh immigrant, Emery White, a coal miner like her father. They had a family of their own and as the years passed their children married and families too.

One of Nell’s grandchildren was Helen White. In 1976, on Helen’s 10^th birthday, she received a special gift from her grandmother, the much-loved childhood doll. For the occasion Nell had asked a neighbor to make a new blue dress and bonnet to modernize the doll’s appearance. It was put over the doll’s original cream cotton clothes. The White family has now generously donated this precious doll to the Local Studies collection at Cessnock Library.

Do you have something you would like to donate to our collection? We’d love to hear from you!

Our passion for cycling goes back over a century

The passion for cycling has a long and strong history in the Hunter going back 116 years. On 18 February 1907 a large and enthusiastic group of cyclists met for the first time in the Aberdare Hotel, now Peden’s Hotel, in Vincent Street Cessnock.

They were keen to create a local cycling organisation and that night formed the Cessnock District Bicycle Club. They appointed a committee and wanting to present a smart image adopted official club colours of red, white and blue. At this first meeting the President of Cessnock Shire Council, George Brown, came on board as club Patron.

Their first road race was held shortly afterwards with an ambitious route from Cessnock to Branxton, then Greta and home, via Allandale. The Cessnock Express newspaper reports humorously on the event:

The journey home was full of fun and adventure while the hungry wheelmen were generously treated to large quantities of luscious fruit on the way home. A cyclist or two may [be] court-martialled if they persist in stopping too long in the vicinity of dairying places – drinking milk and delaying the run by asking pretty dairymaids “far is it to Cessnock!”

By all evidence the club went from strength to strength, campaigning for the establishment of a local banked cycle track, running regular races and by June 1907 holding its first sports meeting. It was a great success. The day was blessed by beautiful weather, a large crowd attended and it began in grand style with a parade down Vincent Street to the sports ground on Wollombi Road.

The Cessnock and District Band led the procession from the old (then new) Cessnock Railway Station, followed by the cyclists who had decorated their bikes making the street, according to a contemporary witness, ‘a very pretty sight’. At the sports ground there was an award for the best decorated bike, as well as a prize for the runner up.

This first cycling sports carnival had attracted the attention of nearby towns, with attendance and competitors from the Branxton Bicycle Club and the Wollombi cycling organisation, the funkily-named Flying Fox Club. The crowd was wowed by the races, with an enthusiastic local report describing that the competition illustrated ‘the speed of the machines [bicycles] – at some places the race was over 50 miles an hour’.

Today’s Hunter Valley cyclists can be proud that they are carrying on a long local tradition of bicycle touring, racing and adventure.

If we could time travel back a century, what would Christmas have looked like in the Cessnock area 100 years ago?

At the dawn of 1923, World War I was over and the soldiers had returned home, the devastation of the influenza epidemic had come to an end and the Great Depression was yet to hit. So it might have seemed a hopeful time and that brighter days were ahead.

But by the end of the year the mood in the Hunter had changed. The town was still reeling from the tragedy of the Bellbird Colliery disaster on 1 September, which still felt raw. No more so than for Mary Bailey, whose husband Malcolm still lay entombed in the mine.

While the official figures were that 21 women were widowed and 41 children lost their fathers in the accident, some of the wives were pregnant and so children born after the disaster did not appear in the official numbers. Many of these would have been born near Christmas, making it a distressing holiday season for those families.

Was it this that motivated the Salvation Army, in the spirit of compassion and the true meaning of Christmas, to put on a community concert on the evening of 25 December? It was held at the newly opened Empire Theatre in Vincent Street, which was located across the road from where the Cessnock Library now stands.

Most people probably walked to the event, or did they drive? Local newspaper, the Cessnock Eagle, was astounded to report in 1923 that we had all gone ‘car mad’ and that the town had ‘earned the name of being a great town for motor cars’. It wondered where all these dozens of new cars on the roads had come from, reflecting how many residents had now ‘become initiated into the mystery and intricacies of the steering wheel’. 

Maybe these new drivers were off to the Co-operative Store to buy ingredients to make ANZAC biscuits, newly popular from World War I. Or were the enthusiastic new Cessnock motorists hurrying to get a bottle of the recently launched salty spread, Vegemite? First developed in 1922, it went on sale for in 1923 after a national competition, with a 50 pound prize, was held to find a name for the paste.