30 April, 2014

Inside Gow's Drapery - the Gow Girls

The first trainload of migrants passing through Hamilton waved wildly to the crowds of spectators gathered along Beaumont Street. Men and women alike, the ‘new Australians’ stretched precariously out of windows the length of the train, as if they wanted to physically touch the people welcoming them. They were on their way from Newcastle to a migrant camp inland, thence to a job, and hopefully, a new and better life.

15 April, 2014

Nina's IGA - Family Kiriakidis

If you walk into Nina’s IGA expecting a one-size-fits-all suburban grocery, be ready to be surprised. Nina’s is anything but average.

12 April, 2014

From sandy track to Eat Street - the becoming of Beaumont Street

It’s the cosmopolitan Eat Street of Newcastle – and so much more. Say ‘Beaumont Street’ and ‘multicultural eats’ springs to mind – not just the first comers the Italians and Greeks, but nowadays  Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Himalayan, Mexican, Turkish, Lebanese and Fijian. 

04 April, 2014

The old Hamilton flour mill

The towering silos of the Hamilton Flour Mill had stood as Hamilton’s most prominent landmark for over 90 years in Hudson Street, Hamilton.

Just one month short of his 90th birthday, Charles McIntyre, the oldest mill owner in Australia, died. His life had been devoted to the Mill, and he had never married. Thus ended a lineage of four generations of millers extending over 170 years. [1] These are remarkable records.