Names to faces

The Newcastle Herald has been of great assistance yet again by publishing one of our photos in its fascinating A moment in time series. On Saturday 14 January 2012, they published the above photo showing some teacher trainees, asking for people to identify the young faces, and, in the same column on Saturday 21 January, they reported the information kindly supplied by members of the public.

Trevor Fullerton emailed the Herald to say he was pictured on the far right of last week’s photo.

Mr Fullerton said it was taken at The Junction Demonstration School in 1956 when Newcastle Teachers’ College was located in Union Street, Newcastle.

“It was the first demonstration lesson observed by a group of students in their initial year of training, ” he said.

“The [standing] students are, from left to right, Jocelyn Driscoll, Brian Evans, Patricia Dark, Bill Fowles and Trevor Fullerton.”

David and Dale Dark of Clarence Town also sent an email, saying they had called David’s sister Patricia Dark, (now Menzies) who now lives at Dorrigo and remembers the photo being taken.

Many thanks to the Herald and to Mr Fullerton, Mr and Mrs Dark and Mrs Menzies!

If you wish to see the full-sized photo, click on the image on this page. Former Newcastle Teachers’ College students may also be interested to see the rest of the photos in the set, Newcastle Teachers’ College, on our Flickr site.

Belfield Climate Archive Expands with New Find

Algernon Henry Belfield (1838-1922)

Late last year a old register containing a further treasure trove of scientific climate data was unearthed.

The register, belonging to leading New England pastoralist, meteorologist and astronomer Algernon Henry Belfield (1838-1922), brings to a conclusion the climate records meticulously collected at his observatory and weather recording facilities at Eversleigh Station over a period of 45 years.

The work is a testament to Algernon Belfield’s dedication to the collection of scientific climate data, and his love for the elements, the final record was taken on the 2 July 1922, only weeks before he died on the Saturday 5th August 1922.

Richard, his grandson, relates that on the Wednesday prior to his death, he had collected his mail, which was a buggy trip to Dumaresq Railway Station with his fox terrier, coming home he complained to one of his boys that he was feeling a little weary and retired to his room at Eversleigh. He passed away early Saturday morning, buried on the Sunday, therefore not disrupting the working week. An efficient man to the end.

Eversleigh Homestead

The Register was digitised by William Oates at the University of New England, and uploaded into a single PDF file by the University of Newcastle’s Cultural Collections. You can download the entire Register as a single PDF here:

Register of Meteorological Observations taken at Eversleigh 1908-1922 (63 MB PDF File)

To access the full climate archive click the following post relating to the original deposit of climate data records from 1877-1907:
http://uoncc.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/climate-archive-to-help-predict-extreme-weather-events/

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist

Algernon Henry Belfield Inaugural Lecture

“A Gentleman researcher in 19th century New England”

28th February 2012

On the 28th February 2012 the University of New England (UNE) Alumni presented a public lecture on meteorologist, astronomer and pastoralist Algernon Henry Belfield entitled “A Gentleman researcher in 19th century New England”.

Professor Howard Bridgman (centre) holds one of Algernon Belfield's Climate records with Mr William Oates (left) and Richard Belfield (right)

The public lecture featured presentations from Mr Bill Oates, UNE University Archivist, Mr Richard Belfield, grandson of Algernon, and donor of the Belfield Climate Archives, and Professor Howard Bridgman, from the School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle.

The lecture was held in the Main Seminar Room Drummond and Smith College.

Richard Belfield pictured viewing his grandfather Algernon Belfield's climate records

Local Treasures: The Athel D’Ombrain Collection

Athel D'Ombrain

Day Shift – 15/11/2011 – 02:10 PM – forthcoming
Presenter: Carol Duncan
Interviewee: Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, Newcastle University

University of Newcastle Archivist Gionni Di Gravio discusses the recent digitisation of the Athel D’Ombrain Collection comprising of over 2,500 negatives, and talks about his life and extraordinary contribution to the Hunter Region.

Broadcast Notes:

The Athel D’Ombrain Collection was deposited with the University of Newcastle Archives in 1982.

The following notes are from an 1981 article in the University News entitled “University Post” (Vol. 7 No. 12 July 1981 p.[3]) supplemented with further notes from a variety of websites. He left an incredible and varied legacy in the wider Regional community. These photographs are an outstanding document of his life’s work and contribution to the natural world,  history, architecture, science and art. They document many historical buildings throughout the Hunter Region, prior to restoration. They also document buildings and structures no longer extant.

The negatives were digitised by Sharon Mee and Michael Sherriff, and both should be congratulated for scanning the two and a half thousand odd negatives that are very challenging to handle. Sharon is currently uploading the negatives to our flickr site here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627892125061/

Here is a selection:

Athel D’Ombrain A.M. (1901-1985) was a photographer, optician, naturalist, author, cricketer, pioneer angler, game fisherman and historian.

He was born in Casterton in the Western District of Victoria in 1901. His father, a general practitioner, was one of the pioneer ornithologists of Australia, and had helped in the formation of the Royal Australian Ornithologists’ Union. It was through his father, and the excursions they shared together, that Athel learnt about the natural world. His interest was further developed by living on the north shore in Sydney at a time when the suburb was sparsly settled and a fine place in which to study birds and animals.

He attended Shore College, Sydney between 1913-18. After being educated at Shore, and realising that his interests were not academic,  he later studied agriculture at Hawkesbury Agricultural College, and worked on the land at Somersby, garnering much success as a citrus-grower. He was part winner of a Wembly Medal and winner of several prizes in local citrus shows.

Athel had also studied optometry and when his brother, Arthur, an opthalmic surgeon, said he should move to Maitland and work with him as a manufacturing optician he said he would. In 1929 he moved to Maitland to work as an optical dispenser at his brother’s practice, and for over 20 years was associated with his brother in Maitland, and later for some years in Newcastle.

Athel was a well respected cricketer with the Northern Suburbs Cricket Club. Known as ‘Dorn’ to his fellow cricketers, his first A Grade season (1929-1930) marked the beginning of an association with the Club that would last over fifty years.

Besides playing, he was also served as Secretary from 1930-36, and later conducted Coaching Classes. In recognition of his long playing and administrative services, he was made a Life Member of the Club in the early sixties and Patron from 1968.

In 1934 he, along with Wallace Fitness, approached the secretary of the Hunter River Agricultural and Horticultural Association Show Society, asking whether they could display some local photographs in the Fine Arts Pavilion at the 1934 annual Maitland Show. The request was accepted, and so was founded the Maitland Salon of Photography.  In 1946 Maitland Salon became an Australian Photographic Society approved Salon and then in 1958 became an International Salon with approval from the Photographic Society of America and finally in 1982 the federation International De L’ Art Photographique granted its patronage.

In February 1936, he married Esma Drew, of Clarencetown, by whom he had a son, Robin, who later became a Technical Officer in Chemical Engineering. Esma died in May 1980.

Around 1950 Athel retired from optometry and became a photographer for The Maitland Mercury. After the 1955 flood hit his home he left the newspaper and established a commercial photographic business in Maitland. Concurrent with these activities he was a “photo-finish operator” at the Maitland Showground and a stringer cameraman.

Through the efforts of Athel and Newman Silverthorne, the Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club was formed with Headquarters at Bundabah on the northern side of the Port. In 1935 the fishing enthusiasts built a clubhouse at Shoal Bay. “There was not one house at the bay at this time – nothing but bush”, he says. The Fish Club was taken over by the Army in the Second World War, following which it was incorporated into the Country Club Hotel. He was renown as a pioneer angler who adopted a scientific approach to the sport and who was very successful in the post war years. He is credited with devising the now widely accepted tag and release concept for big game fishes, commencing his first experiments in 1938.

Athel was an expert naturalist especially on Port Stephens and its flora and fauna. For example, he visited Cabbage Tree Island regularly for 44 years observing and banding the sea bird called Gould’s Petrel. The island is the only known nesting place of the species.

He also enjoyed looking at the birds in the wetlands at Hexham as he travelled between Maitland and Newcastle in the train. Previously he had contributed several articles to the Newcastle Morning Herald. In 1965 he wrote a piece about the birds at Hexham, which came under the notice of the Herald’s Editor at the time, Mr E.K. Lingard, who liked the story so much he asked Athel to write a weekly column. For some time he became a Saturday correspondent for The Herald. He also authored a number of published books, ‘Game Fishing Off the Australian Coast’ and ‘Fish Tales’, and an unpublished account of Gould’s Petrel, called ‘North East of Toomaree’, and an unpublished autobiography

His newspaper articles and books contributed a great deal to the unfolding of the wonders of nature. Moreover, he was continually identifying specimens found in the bush and backyards for individuals.

On the 9 June 1975, in recognition of his service to photography and the study of nature, he was awarded Member of the Order of Australia.

In 1981 he was invited to become a Convocation Visiting Scholar at the University of Newcastle, the third to hold the position since its inception in 1977.

As a result of his photographic work over many years, he amassed a monumental collection of photographs relating to the Hunter Valley. One of his roles as Convocation Visiting Scholar was to work in association with Denis Rowe (University Archivist) in the Archives in the Auchmuty Library, cataloguing his photographs and organising the articles about nature that he had written for the Newcastle Herald.

He continued to write his columns up until a few months prior to his death at age 83 in 1985. According to his son, Mr Robin D’Ombrain, he wrote a total of 995 articles for the Newcastle Herald.

He was a member of the Royal Australian Orthnologist’s Union, an Associate of the Australian Museum and a Member of the Order of Australia.

Broadmeadow Roundhouse

Cultural Collections Seminar Cultural Collections Reading Room Level 2, Auchmuty Library The University of Newcastle Friday 18 November 2011 10am- 11am (followed by morning tea) Broadmeadow Roundhouse Shane Blatchford Shane has worked at both Broadmeadow and Cardiff Locomotive Depots. He will be sharing his experiences and stories of the people behind the railway that made it run. He will also cover the history of the Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot. RSVP: Brenda.Sullivan@newcastle.edu.au or 02 49215824

Welcoming the Scott Sisters Home to Newcastle

Plate 1 from the Australian Lepidoptera (1864)

To celebrate the recent purchases of three original Scott Sisters works through the University’s Reta Light Memorial Trust and Vera Deacon Regional History Fund Cultural Collections in the Auchuty Library is launching a Welcoming the Scott Sisters back to Newcastle Exhibition dedicated to their legacy in the service of science and art.

When: Tuesday 20 September 2011, 10am – 12pm
Where: Cultural Collections Auchmuty Library, University of Newcastle (Under the Mirror Ball)
Guest Speaker: Dr Anne Llewellyn
Cost: Free

The Exhibition will feature the three recently purchased Scott Sisters works, and printed illustrations from the books. In addition we will display the work of the University’s Nature Illustration students, along with life size models, and the ongoing restorative work of the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project that have been working on Ash Island, the original home of the Scott Sisters, over the past 18 years.

View the set of plates on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627585881887/

In so bringing the Scott Sisters back the Newcastle the University of Newcastle:

- brings into its custody the exceptional scientific achievements of the entomologist and entrepreneur Alexander Walker Scott (1800-1883), and his talented daughters Harriet (1830-1907) and Helena (1832-1910), artists and naturalists, who were educated and worked on Ash Island documenting Australian plants, animals and insects. This is of immense Local, National and International significance.

Scott's Australian Lepidoptera Plate 4

- actively supports the historical legacy of this environmental and scientific education in our students, especially those particularly enrolled in Dr Anne Llewellyn’s Natural History Illustration Course, the only course of its kind in an Australian University, and one of a handful worldwide, as well as those in environmental sciences and history. This interdisciplinary course is testament to the continuing legacy of the superb work of the Scott Sisters.

Plate 11 - Scott's Australian Lepidoptera (1864)

- promotes and supports the work of the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project and their University partners and volunteers, such as the Tom Farrell Institute for the Environment, that is actively rehabilitating natural landscapes and ecosystems that have been destroyed over the past 200 years of industrial development.

- promotes our Region’s story and place in the context of the ‘Beauty from Nature’ National Exhibition currently underway in the Australian Museum highlighting the work of the Scott Sisters, where all their original plates, archives, manuscripts and scientific and artistic tools and specimens are held. See http://australianmuseum.net.au/Scott-Sisters-Butterfly-and-Moth-Drawings

Plate 19 - Scott's Australian Lepidoptera (1864)

- promotes a greater respect and awareness for the pre-colonial, indigenous natural environment and the knowledge and sustainable practices of the Aboriginal people who lived on the Islands for thousands of years prior to the arrival of European peoples.

Frontispiece - Scott's Australian Lepidoptera Volume 2 showing the original pier and entrance to Scott's house and farm from the River

In addition copies of the (hot of the press) Butterflies and Bushland The illustrated guide to Ash Island Butterflies by Rosie Heritage and Julian Brougham will also be available for sale with a selection of twenty three (23) beautiful original paintings by Rosie Heritage, the illustrations used in the book ‘Butterflies and Bushland’, on display.

The book was made possible through a Department of Environment and Sustainability and Climate Change Caring for Our Country Grant, and continues the legacy of the work of Alexander Walker Scott and his two talented daughters Helena and Harriet, who, through their mastery of science and art, captured the flora and Lepidoptera of Ash Island, transforming it “into a place of scientific interest world wide.” Ash Island is gradually re-establishing its former splendor, after years of industrial degradation, through the work of the Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority and the volunteers of the Kooragang Wetland Rehabilitation Project.  This book is the field guide to the environmental re-birth of this magical place and its butterflies.

I hope you can join us in welcoming the Scott Sisters back to Newcastle and celebrating their continuing legacy through the University and community.

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist

The Scott Sisters on Ash Island.

Text of the speech delivered by Dr Anne Llewellyn on the occasion of the Launch of the Exhibition

Harriet and Helena Scott are currently being celebrated in an exhibition at the Australian Museum.  Their work has remained largely unrecognized for 150 years since they lived and worked on Ash Island researching and illustrating the plants, insects and animals that inspired them.  Marion Ord’s 1988 publication that included reproductions of the plants and butterflies of the island reintroduced the world to the work of the Scott’s and reminded us of a world on Ash Island that has been largely lost as a result of heavy industry that used the Island as a dumping ground.

Tutored and guided by their father Alexander Walker Scott, a noted entrepreneur and entomologist, Harriet and Helena enjoyed the beautiful natural environment of Ash Island for a period of twenty years faithfully recording and documenting the wildlife around them.  The 2560 acres of land on the island was originally granted to AW Scott in 1829 but it wasn’t until 1846 after his marriage to Harriet Calcott that the family took up residency on Ash Island.  The home they moved into was modest described as being ‘ a simple house with a verandah, sheltered by pines and a huge Moreton Bay fig tree, with a plantation of orange trees behind a modest garden’.  The Scott’s oranges were reputed to be the best in the colony and were sent to the Sydney market.
Harriet and Helena then aged 16 and 14 mixed with prominent scientists and artists and the Island was often visited by memorable guests such as, Ludwig Leichhardt, the artist Conrad Martens and the ornithologist John Gould likely also visited.  Walker Scott is acknowledged by Gould in the 1865 publication of Birds of Australia as having shown him a brood of Grey Goshawks. The Scotts welcomed and entertained the colonies and visiting rich, famous and most interesting characters.

As a member of the Entomology Society of New South Wales and as a trustee of the Australian Museum, AW Scott was in a good position to introduce his talented daughters to the scientific elite. Harriet and Helena had some obvious advantages over their contemporaries in having this close contact with the scientific community that enabled them to seek advice and close scrutiny of their artwork.  As a result of their work on Lepidoptera, the sisters were made honorary members of the Entomological Society of NSW, a rare tribute for women of their day.

The Australian Museum collection of Scott papers, which largely covers the Lepidoptera, indicates that their research was meticulous and included written descriptions, notes and illustrations of each species.  Two notebooks contain numbered observations that align to numbers on the field sketches and when viewed together, each provides a comprehensive description of the colour, patterns and size of each specimen and their associated chrysalis. The notes also include descriptions of transparency and how the insect moves. The Scotts also collected and bred specimens to inform their work.  This collection, which includes a number of type specimens, has been dispersed across the Australian Museum collection but they remain excellent examples of scientifically significant colonial collecting.

Unfortunately the idyllic lifestyle on Ash Island did not last indefinitely and AW Scott was declared bankrupt in 1866. His wife died earlier in the same year and the remaining family moved back to Sydney.  Helena had married Edward Forde in 1864 but Edward also died in 1866 as a result of fever while conducting a survey of the Darling River.  Helena had planned a publication on Flora of the Darling based on specimens she had collected while accompanying her husband on the Darling trip.  His death saw the collection passed onto Rev William Woolls who included them in his 1867 publication Contribution to the flora of Australia.

The sisters continued to draw and paint commercially for the rest of their lives. Harriet drew botanical illustrations for the 1879, 1884 and 1886 editions of the Railway Guide to New South Wales, and they both executed designs for Australian Christmas cards. Her embarrassment at being forced into being paid for her illustration work led Helena to write in a letter to Edward Ramsay:

‘above all … let nobody know you are paying me for doing them for you … I should be sorry that anybody else should know and Papa would be mad’.

The illustrations of Harriet and Helena are represented in a number of notable publications including the landmark 1864 Australian Lepidoptera and Their Transformations,  J C Cox’s 1868 Monograph of Australian Land Shells, Gerard Kreft’s 1869 Snakes of Australia and 1871 Mammals of Australia.

The University of Newcastle has generously brought home to Newcastle some of this important cultural heritage in the books we see today.  As is the case with much of the natural and cultural history of Newcastle and the Hunter region, our ability to research and enjoy it is limited to museums and galleries out of the region.  Though some of this information is being reproduced electronically, the opportunities for Novocastrians to turn the pages and be delighted by the original published work of Harriet and Helena and the many other artists who have documented the rich history of the region has been limited to major national or international libraries or museums.  I am delighted that the University through funding from the Rita Light memorial trust and also the Vera Deacon regional history fund recognizes the important and significant contribution of the Scott family in recording the natural wealth of this area.

Over the last 20 years, the legacy of the Scott’s research and illustrations has informed the rehabilitation of Ash Island.  Peggy Svoboda and a team of volunteers have established thousands of plants including orchids catalogued in the Scott collection.  Hopefully it won’t be too long before the Island will again boast the sentiment expressed by Ludwig Leichhardt whilst a guest of AW Scott in 1842:

..it is a remarkably fine place, not only to enjoy the beauty of nature, a broad shining river, a luxuriant vegetation, a tasteful comfortable cottage with a plantation of orange trees, but to collect a great number of plants which I have never seen before.
(M. Aurousseau (ed. And translation) Letters of F.W. Leichhardt, Vol. 2, Cambridge 1968

The accompanying exhibition of Natural history illustration, is the work of current research higher degree students from the University’s school of Design Communication and Information Technology who are carrying on the tradition of Harriet and Helena.  As their work demonstrates, the Hunter remains a focal point for the observation and visual interpretation of nature some 145 years after the Scotts left Ash Island.  The physical natural environment of the area remains a rich resource for staff and students of the Natural History Illustration program unique in Australia to Newcastle. Through meticulous field observation, recording and research, this exhibition exemplifies the best practice established and executed by the Scotts on Ash Island and puts Newcastle and the University on the map internationally as a focus for excellence in this field of endeavour.  I thank the RHD candidates represented in this exhibition for contributing work for the exhibition and congratulate them on their commitment to the elucidation of science and contribution to knowledge. The world sorely needs such advocates at this time of global warming, habitat destruction and projected sea level change.

To read more on the work of the Scott family the following link to Beauty from Nature: art of the Scott Sisters exhibition currently on show at the Australian Museum
http://australianmuseum.net.au/Beauty-from-Nature-art-of-the-Scott-Sisters/

Media Links

Great Scott’s Ash Island home restored (Newcastle Star 21 September 2011)

Live: Talented Newcastle sisters celebrated (Newcastle Star 21 September 2011)

Sisters’ 1840s botanical paintings open gallery (Newcastle Herald 27 August 2011)

Butterflies of Ash Island (ABC 1233 Interview with Julia Brougham and Rosie Heritage)

No bar to time – Another round

No bar to time: the sequel
Ed Tonks

10:00 am, Thursday 29 September

Cultural Collections Reading Room
Level 2, Auchmuty Library

By popular demand, the well-known author and historian, Ed Tonks, will be presenting the sequel to his talk, No bar to time, in the Cultural Collections Reading Room.

If you have seen our wonderful photos by Ralph Snowball of hotels in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, recognised your favourite pub and wanted to know more about it, now is your chance to hear about it from an expert. Ably guided by Ed Tonks, you will let the work of legendary photographer, Ralph Snowball, be your ticket to a journey through the  heart of old Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

Everyone is welcome!

Walter Donnelly's Toronto Hotel, 1900

No bar to time

No bar to time: a perspective of Snowball’s hotel photographs of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Ed Tonks Wednesday 24 August, 10.00 am Cultural Collections Reading Room Level 2, Auchmuty Library

Let the work of legendary photographer, Ralph Snowball, be the ticket to a journey through the suburbs and heart of old Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. Become acquainted with hotels such as the BONNIE DOON, HAND OF FRIENDSHIP, LOCOMOTIVE, GOLD MINERS HOME, HUNT CLUB and many more. Establish the link between a Mayfield hotel and The Junction. How many hotels were there once in Adamstown? What was the earlier name for the Lambton Park Hotel? What hotel licence was once held by Arthur North? Which hotel once promoted Marshall’s Ales? Name some hotels designed by Newcastle architect Wallace L. Porter? Which brewer once made SB branded beers? What is the connection between the Gateshead Tavern and Telford Street, Newcastle? Come along and find out, as Ed Tonks, well-known local historian and author, shares his expertise. Everyone welcome!

Bonnie Doon Hotel, 1911 Hand of Friendship Hotel, 1903

Mayfield and Waratah Plans

Tiverland Subdivision (M3495)

MAYFIELD’ Folder of Subdivision Plans (c. 1862 – 1937)

Containing over 152 subdivision plans of the Mayfield suburb (Mayfield, 2304 New South Wales), including those of Waratah and North Waratah localities that later became part of the present Mayfield area. The folder was privately purchased by Mr Gionni Di Gravio from David McLean (Cook Hill Books) in the late 1990s and donated to the University of Newcastle’s Archives in June 2011. The original folder was dis-bound to enable the plans to be separated and accessioned.

The images can be used for study and personal research purposes. If you wish to reproduce this image for any other purpose you must obtain permission by contacting the University of Newcastle’s Cultural Collections.

The digitisation of these images was made possible by the kind generosity of the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157627126349915/

 

Mayfield Plan M3162 and Paxton Plan M3160

Mayfield Great Northern Estate 15 October 1927

We are proud to announce the very first sample scans from our new plan scanner installed this afternoon. It will open up a new portalfor the wider research community  to our large format archival collections. They look absolutely beautiful.

Paxton Auction Sale 21 April 1923

 

Local Treasures: Memory of the World

Friendly Trades Society of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch

Day Shift – 19/04/2011 – 02:10 PM
Presenter: Carol Duncan
Interviewee: Gionni Di Gravio, Archivist, Newcastle University

University of Newcastle Archivist Gionni Di Gravio discusses the University of Newcastle’s recent inclusion into the UNESCO Memory of the World, which is the Minute Book of the Friendly Trades Society of Iron Moulders (Newcastle Branch) 1885-1886 and explores an exciting new project of the Humanities Research Institute called ‘Radical Newcastle’.

Broadcast Notes:

Back in March 2011 we received the great news that one of our Minute Books from the Friendly Trades Society of Iron Moulders (Newcastle Branch) had been successfuly inscribed on the Australian Memory of the World Register.

It formed part of a nomination prepared by the Noel Butlin Archives Centre at the Australian National University in Canberra to acknowledge the Minute books of pre-federation Australian trade unions. An official ceremony was held in Hobart on April 1.

Memory of the World Invite (front)

Memory of the World invite (back)

University of Newcastle UNESCO Certificate

The pre-Federation minute books document the formation and decision-making of early Australian trade unions, as workers came together to achieve better working conditions through collective action.

The beginnings of the campaign for the 8-hour day and early strikes by stonemasons, shearers and others are documented in these records.

Unions were locally-based in capital cities and regional centres and later amalgamated to form state and then federal unions, the first federal registrations occurring from 1904.

Current trade unions, who have a key role in our workplace relations system, all trace their origins to pre-Federation unions.

Our contribution is the minute book of the  Friendly Trades Society of Iron Moulders (Newcastle Branch) that records the formation of the Branch at the Glascow Arms in Bullock Island (now Carrington).

Glasgow Arms Hotel, Carrington

The photograph taken above by Ralph Snowball  shows the Hotel as it looked at the time.

The title reads “Minutes of Meetings of Friendly Trades Society of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch”
The official stamp reads “Friendly Trade Society Iron Moulders New South Wales Newcastle Branch”

First Meeting of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch, Glascow Arms, Bullock Island, August 6, 1885

First Meeting of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch
Glascow Arms
Bullock Island
August 6/ 1885

Messrs Talbot and Shinnick the Delegates from Sydney being present, the delegates explained the reason for which they were called together. The Delegates then proceeded to the election of members into the Friendly Trades Society of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch the following gentlemen were duly elected members

David Scott
John Ford
Thomas Roony
William Miller
James Atchinson
Thomas Taylor
George Asquith
John Patmore
James Elliot
Barthomlew FitzPatrick
George Tomlingson
Joseph Tomlingson
William Morgan
Thomas Morgan
Joseph Barclay

The Branch was then declared duly opened by the delegates: the members then proceeded to the election of Officers the following were appointed

President Mr D Scott
Vice-President Mr James Doran
Treasurer Mr J Ford
Secretary Mr G Asquith

The officers being duly installed the Meeting then proceeded to the consideration of By Laws when the following were adopted subject to the Approval of the Executive.

Moved and Seconded By Messrs Talbot and Shinnick that the Treasurer have the power to have in hand the sum of (10) ten pounds for the purpose of Defraying incidental expenses all monies over and above the said (10) ten pounds

verso 1

shall be forwarded to the parent Branch Sydney.

Moved and Seconded that this branch receives contributions from August 11th

Moved by Mr Miller Seconded by Mr Shinnick that all necessary stationery required for the good of this Branch be purchased by the said Branch

Moved by Mr Talbot Seconded by Mr Shinnick that the secretary shall prepare and forward a balance sheet at least once every quarter in time to be inserted in the general balance Sheet of the parent Branch Sydney

Moved by Mr Shinnick seconded by Mr Doran that the President shall receive as payment for services the sum of 2/6 two shillings and sixpence per quarter

Moved by Mr Talbot seconded by Mr Shinnick that the treasurer shall receive for services the sum of 2/6 two shillings and sixpence per quarter

Moved by Mr Talbot seconded by Mr Shinnick that the secretary shall receive for services the sum of (10) ten shillings per quarter

Moved and seconded that for the present the place of meeting shall be the Glascow Arms Hotel Bullock Island the time of meeting shall be from 7/30 till 9 oclock ordinary meeting order of business as per rule adopted

Moved by Mr Ford seconded by Mr Doran that Mr D Scott be appointed as Delegate on the Eight hours Demonstration committee

Recto 2

Moved by Mr Patmore seconded by Mr Taylor that all expenses incurred by the Delegates in Newcastle re formation of the said Newcastle Branch be deducted from the funds of the said Branch

Moved and seconded that the Secretary communicate with the parent Branch about the Society Branch

Moved By Mr Asquith Seconded by Mr Tomlingson that we accord Messrs Talbot and Shinnick a Hearty vote of thanks for their kind services in Helping us along with the Branch

The President Mr Scott put the motion to the meeting and it was carried unanimously by acclamation

Mr talbot then addressed the meeting giving them good advce and thanking them for their vote of thanks Mr Shinnick also responded in an elaborate address calling on all members to work in Harmony togather and in concluding called on a vote of thanks to the president this Being done by acclamation after the President returned thanks this Being the only Business the meeting closed

George Asquith
Secretary

Friendly Trades Society of Iron
moulders
Newcastle Branch

Download the Complete Minute Book here [36.6MB PDF File] Digitised by Melanie Patfield:
Minutes of Meetings of Friendly Trades Society of Ironmoulders Newcastle Branch 1885-1886

Such records relating to labour history, environmental activism, human rights and the fight for better services and infrastructure are currently being researched as part of the Radical Newcastle Project. (http://radicalnewcastle.wordpress.com/)

The Project is an initiative of the University’s Humanities Research Institute and aim to unearth and document Newcastle and the Region’s radical past. Two public meetings have been held and a concept map of potential topic has been drafted. (see it here: http://radicalnewcastle.wordpress.com/concept-map/) The ideas range from Aboriginal Reconciliation initiatives, the Rothbery Riots, the push for a University of Newcastle, the formation of Blackbutt Reserve, the Star Hotel riot in the 1970s and onto local environmental campaigns by Rising Tide and Climate Action Newcastle.

People who are interested in the Project, and wish to contribute are welcome to contact its convenor Dr James Bennett j.bennett@newcastle.edu.au