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Hidden Hamilton

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23.01.2022 AN IDEAL LAST MINUTE GIFT for the lover of local history and a good story. Together, my books ‘Hidden Hamilton’ and ‘More Hidden Hamilton’ are a unique record of the life of this quirky, cosmopolitan Newcastle suburb. Like the author (me) the books aren’t going to be around forever! If you haven’t yet got around to purchasing a copy for yourself, a friend or family member perhaps now’s the time. Priced at $39.95 each, they are available from MacLeans Booksellers and Q’s Books in Hamilton. To buy online or check for an outlet near you, go to http://hunterpress.com.au/customerinformation.html. Happy Christmas!

21.01.2022 Celebrating all things Italian! You are invited to celebrate all things Italian at a special event on Sunday 15 October, 2017 from 9.30 am to 2.00 pm at Cahill Oval, Belmont. Italian engineering, cars and motorcycles as well as food will be on show. Organisers are looking for stall holders for the day so if you are interested, email [email protected], or call Graeme’s mobile 0400 635 064 for the details. I have attached the flyer for the day. Graeme would love you to share this with interested friends and contacts. Sounds like a great day to put in the calendar.

20.01.2022 A new life for the former Mechanics Institute, to be shared with lucky residents. A heritage plaque is ready to be installed once the build is finished, early 2018. Congratulations all!

16.01.2022 Something is always changing in Hamilton. Recently I walked past the Dance and Performing Arts Academy (DAPA) at 145 Beaumont Street, and discovered it has transformed. Located at the southern end of Beaumont Street, its bright signage proclaims it is the WEA Creative Arts Space. WEA will operate it as a fully operational live theatre for small scale plays, musicals, recitals, lectures, cabarets and concerts. Seating 124, it has a traditional proscenium arch and a central ai...sle. It’s also available for hire. This building has an important place in Newcastle’s dramatic arts history. It was the second home of the Roxy, occupied by the Newcastle Dramatic Art Club (NDAC) between 1981 and 2001. NDAC’s first permanent home was the former Roxy cinema at 99-101 Beaumont Street, bought in 1955. That’s where the Westpac Bank is now. NDAC, founded by the late Colin Chapman, produced and presented over 300 plays and musicals over 60 years, ending in 2010. Originally, 145 Beaumont Street was home to the Assemblies of God church. When I was writing a Hidden Hamilton blog post about the Roxy, I discovered that when NDAC purchased the building, it still had a baptismal font used for total immersion. Betty Lind, Colin Chapman’s daughter, told me: ‘We built the stage over it. When the company put on the drama You Can’t Take it with You, a hole was cut in the stage so that two actors could disappear down a cellar into the old font!’ There’s much more about the Roxy and NDAC at http://hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com.au//the-roxy-theatre.ht See more

15.01.2022 HERE'S A MILESTONE! I've officially signed off on my Hidden Hamilton blog. As many of you know, I've been working on other Hamilton heritage projects for the past year or so, as well as writing and publishing my own family history. My closing post can be read at https://hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com.au. The blog will still be there; I am just not doing new stories. This Facebook page will stay open. Happy New Year to all!

14.01.2022 AN ITALIAN FRUITERER OLD-STYLE: Gaetano (Norman) Santamaria ran Mac’s Fruit Shop at 138 Beaumont Street from 1939 to 1946, spanning the years of WWII. He lived with his family in the 3 BR flat above the shop, and his wife Giselda and daughter Julie helped every day in the business. Julie told me that as late night shoppers surged along Beaumont Street, she and her school friends would compete with each other tossing peas from the balcony into the trumpets of the band playing ...below. ‘We loved running across the roofs too’, she confided with glee. Yesterday I received a phone call from Norman’s grand daughter Lise, whom I had never met. I knew at once why she was calling. Her mother Julie, an elegant and courageous woman, had passed away on 8 February, 2019. Julie Lomax had brought me the story of her parents, along with some extraordinary and well preserved photos of the Hamilton fruit shop, taken over 70 years ago. Now, sorting through her mother’s things, Lise found ‘More Hidden Hamilton’ and my contact details. Lise wanted to tell me how much having her family story published in ‘More Hidden Hamilton’ had meant to her mother. I remember when I told Julie that my publisher Christine Bruderlin wanted to put the photo of Mac’s Fruit Shop on the cover, Julie barely managed to hold back tears. Now, 138 Beaumont St is a lovely clothing and homewares shop, Circle of Friends. Vale and thank you Julie Lomax. Here’s her family’s story. http://hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com//08/macs-fruit-shop.html See more

09.01.2022 This once-proud building has at last found someone - with means - to love it. Well done, Daniel and Bernadette Connolly.

06.01.2022 DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THIS FINE OPERATIC SINGER, Jozef Drewniak, who lived in Newcastle from 1950 to 1955? Jozef’s wife Robyn is documenting his life and is keen to contact anyone who knew him during his time in Newcastle. It was Colin Chapman, founder of the Newcastle Dramatic Art Club (NDAC) and the Roxy Theatre in Hamilton, who encouraged Jozef to move from Goulburn to Newcastle. Here, he learned singing, acting and dancing and of course was active in NDAC. His singing car...eer took off after he joined the National Opera of Australia in 1956. Jozef arrived in Australia in 1948, one of over 900 of the Polish Armed Forces who had escaped from Poland in the aftermath of WWII. He was instrumental in forming the Polish Ex-Servicemen’s Association in Newcastle in 1953. Robyn is hopeful someone here will remember Jozef through these community connections. If so, Robyn would love to hear from you - please email her at [email protected] or comment on this post. See more

05.01.2022 BEAUMONT STREET STREETSCAPE is enjoying a colourful makeover by Rebecca Murray, of the Flying Spanners Gallery in Teralba. She’s been commissioned by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce/BIA to paint several telecoms poles and electricity boxes, many of which had been disfigured by graffiti. Three large electricity boxes have a historical theme, adding to the stories already on the blue and white heritage plaques around Hamilton. You’ll find a box with the Roxy Theatre outside ...Star Jewellers (98 Beaumont Street). Gaze across the street to the Westpac Bank and imagine long queues waiting to get in to see the latest musical put on by the Newcastle Dramatic Art Society. Make sure you look on all sides of the box for snippets of its story. On the same side, further up at 78-80 Beaumont Street near Lime Pizza, is the box showing Gow & Co Drapers. The best view of that is from across the street, near IGA. Gows department store used to be on the Chemist Warehouse corner. And just around the corner of The Kent in Cleary Street, you’ll find a circus in full flight. Before the hotel was built in 1924, Massey’s Dog Circus attracted crowds of shoppers with their kids in tow. Don’t miss the cutest terriers in the circus scene Rebecca has created! If you want to read more, use the Search bar on my Hidden Hamilton blog https://hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com See more

04.01.2022 JAMES STREET PLAZA: At last, we can view two Master Plan options for the much-anticipated redevelopment of this community space in the heart of Hamilton. You are invited to choose your preferred option and comment online. There is also a chance to drop in and have your say at the plaza on market day Saturday 14 December, 8am-1pm. Details are at https://newcastle.nsw.gov.au//James-St-Plaza-Hamilton-Mast

03.01.2022 Hidden Hamilton welcomes a new creative arts space in Hamilton Hudson Street Hum. At 7 Hudson Street, just opposite Sydney Junction Hotel and handy to the railway station, it’s a social business enterprise set up by business partners Aleeta Cliff and Suzie Galwey. Workshops in writing, drawing and making will be run here, with profits going to fund social impact programs in Newcastle. There has been a lot of hammering, painting, fetching and carrying going on over recent ...weeks to get the former warehouse into shape. Aleeta says they were inspired by the Hidden Hamilton blog post on Hudson Street (http://hiddenhamilton.blogspot.com.au//when-hudson-street-) and chose to name their business accordingly. Pocket Design was commissioned to create a logo and strong brand for the new business, reflecting its energy and vibrancy. Judging from the street presence, they’ve certainly succeeded! In times past, three businesses worked together and connected a community from one end of the street to the other Hely Brothers, Cann’s Bakery and the Hamilton Flour Mill. Pocket Design writes: ‘The Australian Spotted Gum (a major timber source used by Hely Brothers to make tool handles) was the perfect reference we needed to create a logo and mural which respects the history of the street and welcomes new beginnings.’ I’m sure that creativity, productivity and new ideas will flourish as Hudson Street Hum takes off. More at https://www.facebook.com/hudsonstreethum/ See more

02.01.2022 It has been closed for two years, no longer needed. For almost 120 years, activities in the Hamilton Junction signal box have been hidden to all but a small number of skilled operators. That’s about to change. Yesterday a small group gathered ‘upstairs’ in the distinctive little building to hear about the plans Sydney Trains has to open this gem of a time capsule to visitors. Over recent weeks restoration works have been underway. A special opening event will be held mid-late... November. There will be guided tours and re-enactments of the operation of some of the fascinating equipment including a mechanical tappet frame with 56 levers used to operate the signals and points. The signal box is getting its own heritage plaque, taking the total around Hamilton to 22. Part of the State Heritage listed Hamilton Railway Station Group, the signal box is important because it is a rare intact example of late 19th century railway signalling architecture and technology. Around the clock, generations of signallers safely controlled rail, road and pedestrian traffic over the busy Beaumont Street level crossing, as well as train operations in the precinct. Once integral to everyday life in Hamilton now part of its heritage. I will post again here when I know more. See more

02.01.2022 NEWCASTLE’S PAST IS DISAPPEARING while I write! If you’ve not made a trip to Hunter Street or the foreshore for awhile, you’ll find a vast, flattened block where The Store once was, gleaming towers replacing you-can’t-remember what, and construction works most everywhere else. Since I came to live here in 2012, I’ve seen a flowering of writing by local historians working against time to document disappearing Newcastle. One of those is Julie Keating, whose 7th book about New...castle in the 1800s is now out. About Hamilton’s friendly neighbours, it is called Wickham, Islington & Tighes Hill: the early days near Throsby Creek. Learn about the slaughter-houses providing meat not only for local residents but also ship-owners needing to provision for long voyages, the industries that grew up alongside them, and the consequences for the health of Throsby Creek. Julie’s other books cover Lambton, Waratah and Mayfield, Merewether and The Junction, Hunter Street, the Harbour Foreshore, and New Lambton. They are available at MacLean’s Booksellers in Hamilton, Marketown Newsagency and the Newcastle Museum Shop. SO PANIC NO MORE if you’re a bit late with Mother’s Day shopping! Buy something meaningful books that can be dipped into at leisure and will surprise time and again. And if you’ve somehow missed collecting my Hidden Hamilton books, they are at Maclean’s and Q’s Books in Hamilton, or online from Hunter Press at https://hunterpress.bigcartel.com. They are: Hidden Hamilton: Uncovering stories of Hamilton, NSW, and More Hidden Hamilton: Further stories of people, place and community. Have a happy and peaceful Easter, everyone. See more