Category: Newcastle News

City of Newcastle is inviting Mayfield residents and businesses to take part in a series of “walk-shops” to uncover ideas for the future of their suburb. 

Two walking tours will visit four locations within the Maitland Road shopping precinct to explore how locals use these areas now, and what could be done to make them more vibrant, active spaces.

The feedback will help guide concept designs for future placemaking activities and start to inform the development of the Mayfield Local Centre upgrade.

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said City of Newcastle was committed to collaborating with the Mayfield community.

“Our Local Centre upgrades are designed to refresh and revitalise neighbourhood shopping precincts across Newcastle, which in turn encourages residents to support local businesses,” Cr Nelmes said.

“We want to work with the community to implement revitalised infrastructure, improved landscaping, and public art that aims to create an inviting space for people to meet, relax and enjoy retail offerings in a safe and welcoming environment.

“This first stage of consultation will help inform future planning for Mayfield, allowing us to capture the community’s thoughts on how they use their local centre, and how we can better activate these spaces for the benefit of all.”

Walking tours will be held at 11am on Thursday, 22 August and 10.30am on Sunday, 25 August. 

Participants will be encouraged to give their feedback on each of the sites located within the Maitland Road precinct between Kerr Street and Silsoe Street. 

Visit https://PlanningMayfield.eventbrite.com.au to sign up for one of the tours, or visit the Have Your Say page on City of Newcastle’s website to share feedback online before 13 September.

The Mayfield project will be delivered through City of Newcastle’s Local Centres program, which invests in communities across Newcastle. 

Concept planning and detailed design work for priority sites in Mayfield is expected to occur in 2025, along with further engagement, with construction earmarked for 2026.

Previous projects have delivered upgrades in Beresford Avenue, Beresfield; Mitchell Street, Stockton; Young Street, Carrington; James Street Plaza, Hamilton; Llewellyn Street, Merewether; Joslin Street, Kotara, Sandgate Road, Shortland; Nelson Street, Wallsend, Blackbutt Village, New Lambton and Darby Street, Cooks Hill.

A man has been charged following a serious crash in the state’s hunter region last week.

About 9.30pm on Thursday (8 August 2024) police were called to a hospital on Metford Road, Metford, after a teenage girl presented with serious injuries, believed to be sustained in a crash.

Officers attached to Hunter Valley Police District attended the hospital and were told the 17-year-old girl was struck in a fail-to-stop crash on Camp Road, Greta earlier that evening.

The 17-year-old was transferred to John Hunter Hospital with serious lower body injuries.

Police commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Following inquiries, about 2pm yesterday (Wednesday 14 August 2024) police arrested a 20-year-old man at Greta and took him to Singleton Police Station.

He was charged with seven offences, including:

Dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm (manner dangerous)
Negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm
Fail to stop and assist after vehicle impact causing grievous bodily harm
Operate vehicle do driving wheels undergo sustained loss of traction
Never licensed person drive vehicle on road
Use unregistered registrable Class A motor vehicle on road
Use uninsured motor vehicle on road

Police will allege in court the 20-year-old man was performing burnouts in a Ford Falcon when he lost control of the vehicle and struck the 17-year-old girl.

The 20-year-old man was refused bail to appear before Singleton Local Court today (Thursday 15 August 2024).

Motorists and community members travelling to, from and around the Dungog Shire will soon benefit from safer journeys with close to $9 million committed to support improved flood-resilient infrastructure.

Dungog Shire Council will receive funding as part of the Regional Roads and Transport Recovery Package which is jointly funded by the Albanese and Minns Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.

As part of the funding, a new 76-metre concrete bridge will be built across the Paterson River at Gresford.

Work will also be carried out on 21 river crossings targeting rural, predominantly low-level causeways and small bridges across the region.

The package also funds pavement strengthening on Hooke and Lord Streets which will improve resilience and reduce ongoing maintenance costs for council.

Senator Jenny McAllister, Minister for Emergency Management:

“The Albanese Government is working with the NSW Government and regional councils to ensure communities have resilient infrastructure they can rely on every day.

“Not only will this funding enable Dungog Shire Council to boost their efforts in fixing the current damage, but it will also improve the resilience of the community during future flooding events. 

“This project will deliver more reliable infrastructure and assets that keep regional communities in NSW connected, especially during times of severe weather.”

Paul Scully, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces:

“We’re changing the way we traditionally address disasters, by focusing on prevention, mitigation, adaptation and resilience by making planning decisions that improve community resilience over the long term.

“Today’s announcement is proof of this new focus with the funding package to strengthen local infrastructure for the Dungog community.”

Jihad Dib, Minister for Emergency Services:

“The Dungog Shire has experienced flooding as a result of severe weather in the past, which is why these upgrades are so important to the community.

“These projects are important for building resilience in the region, helping communities bounce back quicker after heavy rainfall.”

Jenny Aitchison, Minister for Regional Transport and Roads:

“The Minns and Albanese governments, along with local councils, are prioritising efforts to improve and clear the natural disaster damage repair backlog for communities across the whole of regional NSW.

“We are proud to be delivering these vital investments in the Dungog Shire.

“In particular, Gresford residents will benefit from the new bridge across the Paterson River, providing a flood-resilient link that will service our community well in all types of weather for many years to come.”

Emily Suvaal, NSW Labor’s spokesperson for the Upper Hunter:

“This important work will improve the daily lives of motorists, residents and visitors to the Upper Hunter.

“These upgrades will improve safety significantly while also ensuring a stronger and more reliable road network that keep communities better connected when natural disasters hit.”

Dungog Shire Council Mayor John Connors:

“This is a wonderful outcome for the people of the Dungog Shire and, in particular, the people of Gresford who have had to contend with access issues for years.

“The improved river crossings and causeways across the shire will ensure access for residents and emergency vehicles after heavy rainfall events is returned more rapidly, and a new bridge over the Paterson River at Gresford will allow for all-weather access for the community and better economic opportunities for rural producers to utilise larger vehicles, with reliance on the natural river crossing a thing of the past.

“We have been advocating for this funding for almost two years on behalf of the community, who deserve roads and infrastructure that can withstand the sometimes-challenging environment.

“We’re very grateful to the Australian and NSW Governments for providing this funding so we can deliver these vital projects.”

A nine-metre-tall swing that reimages the popular playground equipment on a grand scale will be a highlight of the free and family-friendly events on offer at this year’s award-winning New Annual festival.

Set up opposite the Civic Theatre, SWING will allow participants to become part of a giant public art installation as they soar high above Wheeler Place during the closing weekend of City of Newcastle’s flagship cultural event, which runs from 27 September to 6 October.

Worlds Collide will be one of the headline acts at the Global Gathering event in Museum Park.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the free, wheelchair-accessible activity demonstrates how New Annual provides something for the whole community as it celebrates the city’s commitment to arts and culture.

“New Annual has become a catalyst for Newcastle’s cultural events sector to take centre stage alongside leading national events, cementing Newcastle as a creative city where exciting, ambitious and accessible contemporary art and culture grows and thrives,” Cr Nelmes said.

“One of the key aims of the program is to provide a mix of free and low-cost, family-friendly events, which will ensure every member of our community can enjoy the New Annual experience.

“The 2024 festival is also dedicated to amplifying multicultural voices and creativity from our culturally and linguistically diverse communities, fostering a sense of belonging and community involvement.

“From the childhood nostalgia of the swing in Wheeler Place to the cultural melting pot of our Global Gathering event in Museum Park, New Annual will deliver a fun, interactive program not to be missed.”

Almost 5000 people flocked to last year’s Global Gathering event, which will once again deliver a vibrant celebration of diverse traditions, food, art forms, and cultural expressions in Museum Park on 5 October supported by a Multicultural NSW Festival and Event grant.

The free community event will feature cooking demonstrations, interactive kids workshops and a wide range of musical and dance performances including a colourful lion dance by Jin Woo Koon, belly dancing and African drum and dance displays, as well as a fire show and DJ sets.

The night will be capped off by world music favourites Ghana Road Show, which fuses thrilling circus acts with traditional African dance and rhythmic drum beats set to the freshly curated tunes of DJ Lady Chika, while Worlds Collide delivers an intersection of seven cultures who fuse hip hop rhymes, melodic hooks, languages and genres into a fun, authentic and powerful experience.

Culture is also at the heart of the expansive program being delivered in conjunction with MEGAN COPE: Ngumpi Kinyingarra Oyster House at Honeysuckle Marina, which is proudly presented by Newcastle Art Gallery and supported by the University of Newcastle, Create NSW and Thermidor. 

The temporary, custom-built space will be activated with a series of free talks, hands-on workshops and performances including a professional oyster shucking competition and a daily Scrub Club that celebrates local oysters and the ongoing research practice of internationally acclaimed Quandamooka artist Megan Cope. 

Gomeroi hip-hop artist and Triple J favourite Kobie Dee will bring the Marina to life after dark as he headlines the first of two Friday Night Sounds events on 27 September supported by proud Aboriginal man Maanyung, while local DJ Jun Wan’s genre-bending sets will keep the Friday night party going on 4 October. 

New Annual will run from 27 September to 6 October, offering a vibrant mix of immersive dance, music, circus, visual art and theatre. It will kick off with a free family-friendly First Night street party in the precinct around City Hall, which has been supported by a grant from Transport for NSW.

The success of City of Newcastle’s flagship event was recognised at the recent Local Government Week Awards, where New Annual won the prestigious Leo Kelly OAM Arts and Culture Award.

Visit www.newannual.com for more details about the full program.

Newcastle Museum has welcomed the two millionth visitor to its Honeysuckle site as it prepares for one of its busiest events of the year. 

Thousands of people are expected to flock through the doors this Sunday for the free Hunter Science Festival, which in previous years has set new attendance records for a single-day event at the Museum. 

Electric Vehicle exhibit at the Hunter Science Festival, Newcastle Museum.

It is just one of the popular exhibitions and events that have helped attract more than two million visitors to the iconic Newcastle institution since it transformed the former Railway Workshops into a state-of-the-art cultural facility 13 years ago. 

The Museum eclipsed the milestone in July and by August had recorded a grand total of 2,015,000 visitors. 

Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said Newcastle Museum plays a key role in the city’s cultural and tourism attractions. 

“Since reopening at the Honeysuckle site, Newcastle Museum has become a cornerstone of City of Newcastle’s cultural facilities in the Civic precinct, adding to the diversity of experiences that help attract visitors to our city,” Cr Nelmes said. 

“Welcoming two million visitors is an impressive milestone and a wonderful testament to the expertise of our hard-working Museum staff, who deliver an innovative program of exhibitions and events each year. 

“The Hunter Science Festival is a highlight of that annual programming, providing a fun, free day out for the whole family in Newcastle as part of more than one thousand activities being held across Australia for National Science Week.” 

The original Newcastle Region Museum opened in 1988 as a Bicentenary project in Wood Street, Newcastle West, and closed in 2007 before making the move to Workshop Way in Honeysuckle. 

City of Newcastle Director of Museum, Archive, Libraries and Learning, Julie Baird said the present-day institution has forged an identity in Honeysuckle, and a reputation for exceptional exhibitions.  

“From our current, unmissable A Place Called Hollywood exhibition all the way back through the thousands of events we’ve delivered during the past 13 years, I’m proud of the hard-working, knowledgeable and friendly team who continue to preserve and share the stories of our city through our collections, exhibitions, and audience engagement,” Ms Baird said. 

“This year’s Hunter Science Festival has something for everyone. It’s a chance to meet astronomers, inventors, marine biologists and countless other brilliant people who live in our city and beyond.  

“It could be the start of a lifelong love of knowledge, or the inspiration you’ve been searching for. Our museum has that effect in Science Week and every week of the year.”  

The Hunter Science Festival is delivered by City of Newcastle in conjunction with Hunter Innovation and Science Hub (HISH) and features additional displays and demonstrations from a range of organisations including Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI). 

Attendees can expect perennial favourites such as the revolting and revealing HMRI ‘Poo Palace’ – a giant inflatable digestive system – and the chance to build and race electric vehicles with HISH.  

There will also be interactive fun presented by the Hunter Geological Society’s School of Earth, bushfire science shows by Fizzics Education and displays by the Irukanji Shark and Ray Centre, Hunter Wetlands Centre and Hunter Landcare, among others. 

The Hunter Science Festival will run from 10am to 2pm on Sunday 18 August. For more information visit newcastlemuseum.com.au 

Ms Claydon recently wrote to the community asking them to share their experiences and the response has been overwhelming.

The community’s fight for better services has now been taken to the floor of the Parliament with Ms Claydon delivering the following speech this week.

“Almost 5,000 people live in Stockton, which is just a few minutes by ferry from the city of Newcastle. It’s a tight-knit, strong and resilient community. But ongoing problems with mobile phone reception and poor wi-fi and internet connectivity are really taking their toll.

“Newcastle is Australia’s sixth-largest city, which makes these poor telecommunications experiences for Stockton residents especially shocking. In 2024, mobile phone reception, wi-fi and reliability of connectivity are essential services, yet too many people in Stockton have been let down.

“I recently met with Telstra and Optus to raise Stockton community residents’ concerns directly with them. I’m pleased that Telstra has agreed to investigate its telecommunications network in the suburb, and I’ve asked the same of Optus because we need to identify these problems and get them fixed. I’ve also written, with the support of Stockton Community Group, an expression of interest under the Peri-Urban Mobile Program for a grant aimed at improving coverage. Hopefully, that will be of help too.

“More recently, I’ve written to all residents of Stockton to ask them to share their lived experiences of the telecommunications services in the suburb. Residents have been inundating me with their experiences. They speak about fears of constant dropouts and not having reliable tools for study for their children. These are unacceptable in 2024, and we’re doing everything we can to fix them.”

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a teenager missing from the state’s Hunter Region.

Storm Cooper-Ryan, aged 17, was last seen in Heddon Greta about 4pm on Tuesday 6 August 2024.

When she could not be located or contacted, officers attached to Port Stephens-Hunter Police District were notified yesterday (Thursday 8 August 2024) and commenced inquiries into her whereabouts.

Police and family hold serious concerns for her welfare.

Storm is described as having a fair complexion, and about 155cm tall with slim build and blonde hair.

She is known to frequent Metford, Maitland and Sydney.

Anyone with information into her whereabouts is urged to call police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Recruitment will shortly get underway for additional nurses in the John Hunter Hospital emergency department as the Minns Labor Government continues delivering on its promise to rollout a major staffing reform.

John Hunter Hospital is among the next twelve hospitals across metropolitan and regional NSW to introduce Safe Staffing Levels in emergency departments, with the implementation of the reform set to improve the experience of patients and boost retention and capability of staff in public hospitals.

The Safe Staffing Levels initiative involves the introduction of minimum staffing levels on every shift, which will result in more nurses employed in hospitals right across the state and better care for patients.

The staffing boost of frontline healthcare workers at John Hunter Hospital will enable a one-to-one nursing care ratio for generally occupied emergency department resuscitation beds on all shifts, and one nurse to three generally occupied ED treatment spaces and ED short-stay unit beds on all shifts.

The announcement will bring the total number of hospitals commencing the roll-out of Safe Staffing Levels to 16 across the state following the earlier announcement of Liverpool, Royal North Shore, Lismore, and Port Macquarie Hospitals.

The Safe Staffing Levels Taskforce, which includes key leaders from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA), NSW Health, and local health districts, will continue to work through the preparations to determine the FTE required to deliver Safe Staffing Levels at John Hunter Hospital over coming weeks and months.

Phase one of Safe Staffing Levels is initially commencing in Level 5 and Level 6 EDs, which treat the most critically ill patients, and will then be progressively implemented across other hospitals and departments. The Safe Staffing Levels Taskforce will continue to oversee the rollout of the government’s commitment of 2480 FTE over four years (to June 2027) towards staffing levels.

Implementing Safe Staffing Levels is just one of a range of measures the Minns Labor Government is embracing to build a supported and capable health workforce, including:

saving 1,112 nurse and midwife positions by making the roles permanent;

abolishing the wages cap and delivering the highest pay increase in over a decade for nurses and other health workers;

beginning to roll out 500 additional paramedics in regional, rural, and remote communities; and

introducing the health worker study subsidies scheme.

NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park:

“The Safe Staffing Levels initiative involves the introduction of minimum staffing levels on every shift, which will result in more nurses employed in hospitals right across the state.

“Importantly, this reform will deliver improved nursing numbers to provide care for patients while supporting our frontline healthcare staff.

“The rollout began earlier this year at Liverpool, Royal North Shore, Port Macquarie Base and Lismore Base Hospitals and I’m thrilled we’re now onto the next twelve sites that will see implementation commence over coming months.”

Minister for the Hunter Yasmin Catley:

“While equipment and facilities are important, they will never replace the care and compassion of our nurses.

“Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system, giving patients vital care to people who are often in their darkest moments.

“People in the Hunter deserve the best healthcare, and these changes will ensure patients get more personalised care with improved nurse-to-patient ratios at John Hunter.”

Police are appealing for public assistance to locate a teenage girl missing from the Port Stephens area.

Sophie Fletcher, aged 13, was last seen leaving a home on Victoria Parade, Nelson Bay, about 7.20am on Monday 5 August 2024.

When she was unable to be located or contacted, Sophie was reported missing to officers attached to Port Stephens Hunter Police District today (Wednesday 7 August 2024) and commenced inquiries into her whereabouts.

Police and family hold serious concerns for Sophie’s whereabouts due to her age.

Sophie is described as being of Caucasian appearance, about 165cm tall, of slim build with long brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue long pants, a blue polo and carrying a black school bag.

Sophie is known to utilise public transport and frequents the Rutherford area.

Anyone with information into Sophie’s whereabouts is urged to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.