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.

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.

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. 

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 90^th 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.

Northern Star Cafe

The character of the Northern Star Cafe on Beaumont Street has been formed over almost sixty years, infused with the history and aspirations of its Greek, Italian and Australian owners. Today, like any 60 year old, it knows who it is. It will have a few regrets - like all of us - and escapades best left hidden, but it enjoys the status of a Hamilton icon.

Sydney Junction Hotel - a family story

For six turbulent years a young English emigrant, son of a publican, pursued his small business dream as the licensee of the Sydney Junction Hotel, Hamilton. The magic of the coming of rail to Newcastle lit up his dream with the promise of prosperity.

Hamilton's gay history

‘The police were great. They were really good. I mean to say, there was the wine bar at Hamilton, and we all used to go up there. And one night, I staggered out of the ...Star, and I was going to the wine bar. I was walking to Hamilton, and the police said to me, “Would you like a lift?” and I said, “Only if I can ride in the back”. So they put me in the back of the paddy wagon and pulled up at the .wine bar, and I got out and said, “Thanks boys!” and everyone in the wine bar nearly had a nervous breakdown!’ [1]

'A great fall of roof' - the Hamilton mine disaster

He denied he’d been warned, that the conversations had ever taken place. After all, James Sharp was acting Overman at the Hamilton Pit, and his word would be sure to stand over that of the miners before the Coroner. Sharp had the authority.

The story of Donald's Corner

When you were growing up in Hamilton’, I asked memoir writer Margaret Colditz ‘where was the money?’ 

‘The money’, she responded without a second’s pause, ‘was in Donald’s Corner’.

A Mine Manager's retreat - the AA Company house

Status is having a house on the crest of a hill, fireplaces in every room, and your own underground water tank  so you don’t have to queue to draw water with the wives of miners.

Status can also mean responsibility - lying awake, desperate for sleep, dreading the first light. Imagine that your boss, Superintendent of the AA Company, [1] has commissioned you to bring in ‘scab labour’ from Victoria and South Australia, and to destroy the coal miners union, once and for all.