Three teens have been charged following investigations into traffic and property-related offences in the Hunter region.
Operation Mongoose was established in April 2022 to investigate property offences, break and enters, and vehicle thefts throughout the Oxley and Port Stephens/ Hunter Valley Police Districts.
About 10pm last night (Thursday 2 June 2022), two teenage girls entered a home on Carandotta Street, Mayfield, and allegedly stole a BMW hatchback.
Just before midnight, officers attempted to stop the stolen vehicle travelling west on Raymond Terrace Road, Woodberry. When the vehicle failed to stop, a pursuit was initiated, however due to safety concerns, it was terminated near East Maitland.
A short time later, the vehicle was located abandoned on Melbourne Street, East Maitland. With the assistance of the Dog Unit, the two 15-year-old girls were arrested in a nearby property.
The first teenage girl was charged with aggravated break, enter and steal in company, and carried in conveyance without consent of owner.
The second teenage girl was charged with aggravated break, enter and steal, take & drive conveyance without consent of owner, and police pursuit – not stop – drive recklessly.
Additionally, about 2:50am this morning (Friday 3 June 2022), officers attended a home on Gostwich Avenue, Woodberry, and arrested a 14-year-old boy before being taken to Raymond Terrace Police Station.
He subsequently charged with aggravated break and enter, take and drive conveyance, larceny, enter vehicle without consent of owner, enter prescribed premises without lawful excuse.
All three teens were refused bail to appear before a children’s court today (Friday 3 June 2022).
A serving police officer has been charged with property offences.
In July 2021, officers attached to the Newcastle City Police District commenced an investigation into an alleged incident where property was damaged.
Following extensive inquiries, a 38-year-old senior constable – attached to a command in the Northern Region – was issued a Court Attendance Notice for destroy or damage property
He is due to appear in Newcastle Local Court on Monday 11 July 2022.
TALENT OUTSHINES DISTANCE FOR HUNTER ‘YOUNG ARCHIES’ FINALIST To have your artwork hanging in the NSW Art Gallery before you finish high school is quite an achievement. For it to be there because you have been selected as one of 70 Young Archies finalists out of more than 2400 entries nationally is even more impressive. “I’m so honoured, I couldn’t wait for the day, I couldn’t wait to see it up on the website,” selected artist Juliette Kostalova said. “I’m yet to go see it at the gallery, I’m too far away.” The Year 12 student from Rutherford Technology High School, near Maitland in the Hunter Valley, is one of just three students from a regional public school to be named as a finalist for the prize. Her self-portrait Solus has been nominated among the 16-18-year-old category and was created specifically for the competition. Luella Chiswick, from Lisarow Public School on the Central Coast, and Freda Schaeffer, from Martins Gully Public School near Armidale, are among the five to eight-year-olds whose works Aerlie and Captain Bobbie were selected. A total of 25 students from NSW public students are finalists in the competition. Without question, the Archibald Prize for portraiture is the best-known art prize in Australia. A decade ago, the Young Archies were established and have been embraced by budding artists of all ages. “I’m so nervous, I do want to win but the entries this year are so good,” Juliette said. The winner of the Young Archies will be announced Saturday, 18th June 2022.
A multi-sensory experience that has attracted more than eight and a half million people across 75 cities around the world will be the centrepiece of City of Newcastle’s second New Annual festival in September.
Presented in a specially designed 2,300-square-metre gallery known as The Grand Pavilion, which will be set up at Newcastle’s premier major event space, Foreshore Park, Van Gogh Alive features more than 3,000 high-definition images of the artist’s work, projected at a scale that allows visitors to experience the paintings like never before.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said attracting Van Gogh Alive is a coup for Newcastle that will enhance the city’s reputation for hosting world-class events while boosting the local economy by attracting thousands of visitors.
“We’re excited to partner with Andrew Kay Management to bring the impressive Van Gogh Alive to a regional city for the first time in Australia as part of our New Annual festival,” Cr Nelmes said.
“Spanning across a ten-day period and featuring over 50 events across the city, New Annual will showcase local and visiting artists sharing music, dance, theatre, performance, and visual art in a celebration of creativity.
“The versatility of Foreshore Park ensures we’re able to attract major events such as this unique immersive experience in Newcastle, which will attract an influx of visitors to our city at a time when the local tourism industry needs it most and as local operators and businesses recover from the pandemic.”
Newcastle artist James Drinkwater described Van Gogh, who was his favourite painter as a child, as being “in the pantheon of the greats” and welcomed the opportunity to see this show in Newcastle. He said the city was “coming of age” culturally and believed an event such as this one would make art more accessible to the wider community.
“This event is a marker of the times and acts as a conduit between the wonderful and complex social spectrum of Newcastle,” James said.
Created and produced by Grande Experiences, Van Gogh Alive is co-produced by Andrew Kay in association with BBC and Alex Fane in the Grand Pavilion.
Bruce Peterson, owner of Grande Experiences, said “After mesmerising a global audience of over 8.5 million people and selling-out cities all over the world, including Rome, London and Beijing, we’re incredibly excited that Van Gogh Alive now comes to Newcastle. This is an unforgettable cultural experience for all the family.”
Andrew Kay of Andrew Kay Management, said “Van Gogh Alive has been an international hit, thrilling audiences across the globe since the first experience launched at the Art Science Museum in Singapore in 2011.”
Van Gogh Alive provides audiences with the opportunity to plunge themselves in the life and work of Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, Vincent van Gogh, through a vibrant symphony of light, colour and fragrance, set to an evocative classical soundtrack.
An interpretive area provides an educational introduction to some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, before the cutting-edge technology of the SENSORY4 TM Gallery transports visitors inside the artist’s greatest works, with images projected onto virtually every surface.
Newcastle will host Van Gogh Alive from 21 September until 23 October at Foreshore Park, while the New Annual program will run from 23 September to 2 October throughout the city.
Further information about City of Newcastle’s flagship cultural festival is available at newannual.com
City of Newcastle has awarded a tender to remediate a former landfill site at Shortland.
The former Astra Street landfill opened in 1974, taking waste from across the Hunter until it was closed in 1995.
Preliminary investigations undertaken in 2021 indicated that the scale of work required to improve the 20-year-old capping and drainage on the 37-hectare site would be significantly more complex and costly than previously expected.
City of Newcastle Acting Director of Infrastructure and Property Joanne Rigby said the project was an important priority for protecting the long-term health of the nearby RAMSAR- listed Hunter Wetlands, with $18.6 million allocated in the draft 2022/23 Budget towards the costs of the remediation work.
“City of Newcastle is committed to not only ensuring today’s waste is managed with the environment front-of-mind, but that historic sites like Astra Street at Shortland also adhere to modern environmental management standards,” Ms Rigby said.
“These works will allow City of Newcastle to help protect and maintain the local environment well into the future, safeguarding the water quality of surrounding wetlands and aquatic ecosystems, increasing biodiversity values and promoting long-term native vegetation growth.”
City of Newcastle has been working with the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on a plan to remediate the site to ensure adherence to modern environmental management standards.
Two detailed design alternatives for the capping solution were developed being a geosynthetic clay lining, and a clay capping solution.
The successful tenderer will deliver a clay capping solution to meet environmental requirements reducing cost and risk compared to the alternate geosynthetic clay lining solution.
Works will include the final capping and reprofiling of the site, drainage improvements to aid in management of surface water and sediment runoff, followed by revegetation and landscaping.
Work is scheduled to commence in July and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
An archaeological dig that kicked off at Newcastle’s oldest European cemetery this week will delve deeper into the heritage of the site ahead of its planned revitalisation.
Located high on the hill behind Christ Church Cathedral, Cathedral Park is the resting place of more than 3300 of the city’s earliest European inhabitants, and prior to settlement was the site of an Aboriginal camping ground for thousands of years.
City of Newcastle Manager Regulatory, Planning & Assessment Michelle Bisson said the archaeological dig was an essential part of the process to ensure the history of the site was protected and preserved.
“City of Newcastle has engaged the Archaeological Management and Consulting Group (AMAC) to undertake a series of excavations to test for the presence of historical archaeological relics or Aboriginal archaeological objects in areas subject to planned landscaping and heritage interpretation works,” Ms Bisson said.
“This test excavation program will be supervised by Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) from the local community.
“Appropriate safety measures will be put in place by City of Newcastle to ensure the park will remain open to the public for the duration of these archaeological works, which are required before we can progress with the next stage of the proposed landscaping project.
“The archaeologists on site are also happy to engage with the public and answer any questions they may have.”
Cathedral Park was used as a burial ground by the penal settlement from 1816 until 1884 and is the final resting place of notable early settlers including Newcastle’s first Mayor, James Hannell, former Mayor James Kemp, and magistrates John Bingle and Major Archibald Clunes Innes. The 1826 grave of Mary Martin is thought to be the oldest remaining headstone on the site. Several Aboriginal infants and adults are buried at the cemetery and entered on the burial registers, including the 1860 burial of an Aboriginal man named Jacky Jacky.
After falling into disrepair, the site was acquired from the Church by City of Newcastle in 1966 for the establishment of a public park.
Since 2012, City of Newcastle has been carrying out a number of improvement projects as part of a masterplan proposal to transform Cathedral Park into a showpiece destination. The plan is designed to respect the site’s heritage while also making the most of its spectacular views over the city and harbour and its position adjacent to the Christ Church Cathedral, which attracts upwards of 80,000 visitors each year.
The proposed future landscape and heritage interpretation works will help stabilise the surviving headstone monuments in line with their state heritage significance and recreate the original cemetery layout where possible, while also creating a beautiful, contemporary and engaging public space that integrates parkland and heritage interpretation uses.
Other plans include the erection of an infant memorial as well as a monument remembering the 60 people who died in the Cawarra shipwreck of 1866, 31 of whom were buried on this site. A rotunda is proposed for the site of ‘Mulimbah’ to acknowledge the former Colonial Georgian style family home and garden built by Simon Kemp in the 1840s and to tell the story of early Novocastrians and their way of life.
A $12 million social housing funding agreement between the City of Newcastle and NSW Land and Housing Corporation was endorsed by councillors at last night’s Ordinary Council Meeting.
The landmark agreement sets out a commitment from the NSW Government to match City of Newcastle’s contribution of approximately $2 million annually for the next three years.
The funds will be invested in the delivery of new social and affordable housing in Newcastle, in priority locations such as Wallsend.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the endorsement by councillors is a significant step towards fast tracking social and affordable housing outcomes for people in Newcastle, while also supporting investment and jobs growth.
“With over 10,000 families suffering from housing stress across the city, housing affordability in Newcastle is close to crisis point, which is why this issue is a priority of the Newcastle 2040 Community Strategic Plan and the Newcastle Local Housing Strategy 2020,” Cr Nelmes said.
“This historic partnership between City of Newcastle and the NSW Government will increase the supply and range of social and affordable housing to ease the stress of the most at-risk community members, while supporting investment and creating more jobs in Newcastle.
“Affordably priced housing plays a critical role in the health and wellbeing of people and their families, and social housing provides an important safety net for the community.”
NSW Minister for Planning and Minister for Homes Anthony Roberts said the agreement would deliver positive social and affordable housing outcomes for the people of Newcastle.
“The NSW Government is currently investing more than $250 million to fast-track the delivery of more social and affordable housing across the state – but we can’t do it alone,” Mr Roberts said.
“We’re thrilled to be working with the City of Newcastle to address housing supply and affordability, and we hope this investment will encourage more of our local government partners to do the same.
“We need to work across all levels of government to keep pace with the growing need for social and affordable housing.”
Research undertaken by City of Newcastle shows that one in three people don’t believe there are enough diverse housing options for everyone across the city, and one quarter of people don’t believe they can afford a reasonable standard of housing in the area.
The latest forecasts show the population is set to increase by 41,150 residents to 202,050 by 2041 in the Newcastle local government area (LGA), which will stimulate demand for almost 20,000 new dwellings.
“The NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) owns 4,300 social housing dwellings across the Newcastle LGA, and City of Newcastle is working in close partnership with LAHC to fast-track projects such as the renewal of existing properties in Waratah West and Wallsend,” Cr Nelmes said.
“Construction has already commenced on the redevelopment of two ageing homes on Landa Parade Waratah West that will be transformed into a low-rise, accessible building that features six two-bedroom units and four one-bedroom units for up to 16 residents.
“City of Newcastle and NSW Land and Housing Corporation wants to ensure future social housing continues to be built in the right places with good access to jobs, services, public transport and open space, and through this partnership with the NSW Government our organisations will lead the way to deliver better outcomes for the community.”
A man has been charged after a double fatal crash near Port Stephens in March.
Shortly before 1.40pm (Thursday 24 March 2022), emergency services were called to the Pacific Highway at Tea Gardens, near Viney Creek Road West, after reports of a crash involving two cars and a motorcycle.
An Isuzu D-Max utility travelling southbound collided with a motorcycle and a Toyota station wagon, both travelling northbound.
The male motorcyclist died at the scene.
The female driver of the Toyota was trapped by confinement; however, she died at the scene a short time later.
A female passenger of the Toyota was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken to John Hunter Hospital.
Officers from Port Stephens-Hunter Police District established a crime scene, which was examined by specialist officers from the Crash Investigation Unit.
Following enquiries, about 9am on Thursday 26 May 2022, officers arrested a 59-year-old man at Raymond Terrace Police Station.
He was charged with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death-drive manner dangerous, negligent driving (occasioning death), cause bodily harm by misconduct – in charge of motor vehicle, negligent driving (no death or grievous bodily harm), and not keep left of dividing line.
He was given conditional bail to appear before Raymond Terrace Local Court on Monday 4 July 2022.
Three men have been charged over an alleged aggravated sexual assault in Newcastle earlier this year.
Police will allege in court at about 11pm on Saturday 26 February 2022, a 19-year-old woman was sexually assaulted at a unit on Parry Street, Newcastle West.
Officers from Newcastle City Police District were notified a short time later and established Strike Force Bombe to investigate the incident.
Following extensive inquiries, strike force investigators executed a search warrant at a home on Glen Logan Road, Bossley Park, about 7.40am on Friday 6 May 2022.
A 28-year-old man was arrested and taken to Fairfield Police Station.
He was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault in company with other person/s and one count of sexually touch another person without consent.
He was refused bail to appear at Fairfield Local Court on Friday 6 May 2022, where he was granted strict conditional bail to reappear at the same court on Monday 4 July 2022.
Following further investigation, detectives executed two search warrants at properties in Edensor Park and Horsley Park about 6.45am today (Wednesday 25 May 2022).
Two men – aged 20 and 28 – were arrested and taken to Fairfield Police Station.
The older man was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault in company with other person/s. He was refused bail to appear at Fairfield Local Court today (Wednesday 25 May 2022), where he was granted conditional bail to reappear at the same court on Monday 4 July 2022.
The younger man was charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault in company with other person/s, being that of principal in the 2nd degree. He was granted strict conditional bail to appear at Fairfield Local Court on Monday 4 July 2022.
Investigations under Strike Force Bombe are continuing.
Following is a summary of resolutions from the Ordinary Council Meeting of Tuesday 24 May 2022. NB: it is not a full record of resolutions.
Lord Mayoral Minutes
Election of a Federal Labor Government A Lord Mayoral Minute (LMM) was unanimously supported congratulating Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the four local Members of Parliament following the election of a Federal Labor Government.
Council will write to Prime Minister Albanese and the city’s local MPs reiterating City of Newcastle’s support for a continued close collaborative partnership with the Federal Government and include an updated version of our 2022 Federal Advocacy document of significant projects supported by Council for the advancement of our city.
Acknowledging Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey A Lord Mayoral Minute (LMM) was unanimously supported noting that Newcastle City Police District Commander, Detective Superintendent Wayne Humphrey APM has transferred to the Port Stephens-Hunter Police District, with Superintendent Tracey Chapman to act in the role until November when Superintendent Kylie Endemi takes command of Newcastle City Police District.
The Minute congratulates both Commanders on their new appointments, and thanks Detective Superintendent Humphrey for his dedicated service to the people of Newcastle and his collaborative working relationship with Council.
ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability A Lord Mayoral Minute (LMM) was endorsed that recognises the City of Newcastle’s long-standing membership of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and pledges support for the Malmö Commitment on Inclusive & Equitable Communities, to be captured within CN’s draft Environmental Strategy.
Ordinary Business
Compulsory acquisition of community land by Transport for NSW – Newcastle Inner City Bypass Councillors agreed to reject an offer made by Transport for NSW (TfNSW) for the compulsory acquisition of eight parcels of community land owned by City of Newcastle (CN) in Lambton and New Lambton.
City of Newcastle will seek a determination by the Valuer General regarding the compensation payable for the land. The transfer of the land is estimated to occur on or around 10 June 2022.
Tabling of Register of Disclosures of Interest Councillors noted the tabling of the Register of Disclosures of Interest for the period 1 February to 30 April 2022 by the Chief Executive Officer, in accordance with the codes of conduct for Councillors and Staff.
NSW Land and Housing Corporation Funding Deed Councillors unanimously endorsed a Funding Deed with NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC), which outlines the purpose, amount, timing, reporting and other responsibilities of City of Newcastle and LAHC in relation to funding under the previously endorsed Memorandum of Understanding.
Public exhibition of Councillor Expenses and Facilities Policy Council voted to place the draft Councillor Expenses and Facilities Policy on public exhibition for 28 days and receive a report following the exhibition period.
March Quarterly Budget Review Councillors received the March Quarterly Budget Review Statement as at March 31, 2022 and adopted the revised budget.
Quarterly performance report on the 2018-2022 Delivery Program Councillors received the 2018-2022 Delivery Program performance report for the January to March 2022 period.
Executive monthly performance report Council received the executive monthly performance report for April 2022, which reports on City of Newcastle’s monthly performance.
Tender report – Astra Street landfill capping and environmental management works Councillors voted to accept a tender for Astra Street landfill capping and environmental management works.
Tender report – electrical and communications services Councillors voted to accept a tender for electrical contractors to provide electrical and communication installation, repairs and maintenance services.
Write-off sundry debt Council agreed to write-off a balance of sundry debt consistent with City of Newcastle’s Debt Management Guidelines and in accordance with the provisions of CI 213 Local Government (General) Regulation, 2005.
Supplementary Report – Public Exhibition of Draft Delivering Newcastle 2040 Council resolved to apply to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a one-off Additional Special Variation (ASV) of 2.5 per cent for 2022-2023 financial year, and for this to be a permanent increase retained within the rate base.
Notice of Motion
Hunter fig trees in East End upgrade Council unanimously endorsed a Notice of Motioncalling for a public briefing regarding plans for the four fig trees at the end of Hunter Street Mall on the refuge island between Hunter and Scott Streets, on the basis that three of the trees are proposed to be removed in 2023 due to their poor condition.
State Environmental Planning Policy Council endorsed a Notice of Motion to write to the Minister for Planning and Minister for Homes to request a formal explanation regarding the decision to dispense with planning reforms under the proposed State Environmental Planning Policy (Design and Place) 2021.
