Category: Newcastle News

At 10.27am on 28 December it will be 30 years to the minute since an earthquake broke Novocastrian hearts and devastated our city.
City of Newcastle is remembering the 13 people killed and the courage, resilience and community spirit that followed the 1989 quake by hosting and supporting a range of events to mark the 30^th anniversary.

Christ Church Cathedral will host a special commemorative service and morning tea on the day of the anniversary that anyone is welcome to attend.
“It’s hard to believe three decades have passed since the earthquake because the day is still so vivid for many of us,” Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes, who called for the commemorative service in a successful minute at the February Council meeting, said.
“Holding a commemorative service will provide an opportunity to remember those lost – Cecil Robert Abbott, Leonard Charles Norris, Albert Gavin Bender, John Anthony O’Shannessy, Dulcie Alice Blim, Barry Francis Spark, Carol Ann Coxhell, Peggy Theresa Stone, Miriam Collen Duffy, Levener Georgia Watson, Verlena Maree March, Eileen Mary Werren and Cyril Keith McMahon.
“We will also acknowledge the incredible efforts of the city’s emergency services personnel and others who helped their fellow citizens in a situation that might have overwhelmed people of lesser mettle.
“As well as killing 13 and injuring 160, the quake caused around $4 billion in damage, an astonishing figure.
“More than 35,000 homes were damaged, leaving 1,000 people homeless, as were 147 schools and 3,000 other buildings.”
Newcastle Museum’s Earthquake Then and Now and Again exhibition has been extended until Monday 13 January after opening in July.

The exhibition looks back through the eyes of those who stood tall in the immediate aftermath of the 5.6-magnitude quake, including a doctor Garry Warner (left) who tended a man seriously injured on Beaumont Street, Hamilton.
Tighes Hill gallery Newcastle ArtSpace is presenting a photographic exhibition of the Newcastle Workers Club ruins, shot by photojournalist Steve Tickner.
Entitled five.point.six, the collection was curated by accomplished Newcastle Herald photographer Simone De Peak, and also covers the wider rescue effort and damage.
Another exhibition, Newcastle in Print at Newcastle Library, features newspaper coverage as part of a wider exploration of significant events in Newcastle’s history.
Event details
Newcastle Earthquake Commemorative Service, Christchurch Cathedral – Saturday 28 December 2019 10am with morning tea to follow.
Earthquake Then and Now and Again – Newcastle Museum’s Link Gallery/Foyer to Monday 13 January 2020.
five.point.six: A Newcastle Art Space exhibition at 91 Chinchen Street, Islington – open to Sunday 22 December 2019
Newcastle in Print – Newcastle Library’s Local History Lounge until Saturday 22 February 2020

A man has been charged and a woman is in a coma following an alleged altercation in the Hunter region.
About 1.30am (Monday 16 December 2019), officers attached to Hunter Valley Police District attended a home in Hampshire Road, Merriwa – west of Muswellbrook – after reports of a domestic violence related incident.
A 40-year-old man was arrested and taken to Muswellbrook Police Station.
Police will allege that at about 1.30pm on Sunday (15 December 2019), an argument occurred between the man and a 41-year old woman.
During the altercation it’s alleged the man was struck and bitten by the woman. He then allegedly slapped the woman, causing her to fall backwards and hit her head.
NSW Ambulance paramedics attended the home and treated the woman for head injuries. She was airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in a serious condition.
The woman underwent emergency surgery and is expected to be in an induced coma for several days.
The man was also treated for a laceration to his hand and bruising to his cheek.
The man was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and breaching an Apprehended Domestic Violence Order.
He was refused bail to appear in Muswellbrook Local Court today (Monday 16 December 2019).

A man has been charged after allegedly discharging an air rifle near a public place.
About 4.30pm on Friday 13 December 2019, police have been told a man was firing an air rifle at a private residence on Quigley Street, Bolton Point, directed at birds in a nearby reserve.
Yesterday (Sunday 15 December 2019), the matter was reported to police who then commenced inquiries.
A short time later, officers attached to Lake Macquarie Police District attended a property on Quigley Street, Bolton Point, and spoke with a 25-year-old man.
Police allegedly located and seized a loaded air rifle inside the property.
The man was arrested and taken to Toronto Police Station.
He was charged with use firearm in or near public place and not keep firearm safely.
He was refused bail to appear at Toronto Local Court today (Monday 16 December 2019).

A man will face court today following a police pursuit in the Hunter at the weekend.
Shortly before 11pm on Saturday 14 December 2019, officers attached to Port Stephens-Hunter Police District attempted to stop an allegedly stolen Toyota Prado 4WD on Belmore Road, Lorn.
It’s alleged the Toyota then attempted to reverse into police before fleeing at speed.
A pursuit was initiated but was terminated a short time later.
Police then located the Toyota in Skilton Avenue, East Maitland and found a 25-year-old man allegedly hiding in nearby grass.
A short foot pursuit was initiated before the 25-year-old was arrested.
During a subsequent search of the vehicle, police allegedly located several items suspected of being stolen from an earlier aggravated break and enter offence at a hardware business on Bungaree Street, Maitland.
He was taken to Maitland Police Station and charged with 12 offences, including police pursuit (Skye’s Law), aggravated break & enter dwelling in company and armed with intent to commit indictable offence.
He was refused bail to face Maitland Local Court yesterday (Sunday 15 December 2019) where he was again refused bail to face the same court today (Monday 16 December 2019).
Inquiries are continuing.

Three men have been charged following a pursuit with police in the Newcastle area overnight.
Around 2.25am (Saturday 14 December 2019), officers attached to Newcastle City Police District observed a black Mazda sedan – suspected stolen – parked at a service station on Glebe Road in Merewether.
Officers approached two men, both aged 23, inside the service station, at which time a third 23-year-old – who was sitting inside the Mazda – drove from the scene.
Upon searching the two men, officers allegedly located over $9,000 in cash and ammunition on one of them. Both men were arrested and taken to Newcastle Police Station.
Other police pursued the Mazda through the suburbs of Birmingham Gardens, Waratah, Jesmond, Heatherbrae, Raymond Terrace and Williamtown. Road spikes were deployed on Tourle Street, Mayfield West causing the tyres to deflate. The car continued until it crashed into a set of traffic lights at the intersection of Tourle Street and Industrial Drive.
The 23-year-old driver left the vehicle and was pursued on foot before being arrested in a backyard of a home on Groongale Street in Mayfield West.
Officers located and seized two bags dropped near the scene. Upon searching the bags, police allegedly found a number of pills, mobile phones, gloves and a knife.
The driver was taken to John Hunter Hospital for mandatory testing before being taken to Newcastle Police Station.
Upon searching the stolen Mazda, officers allegedly located a .22 rifle under the seat. The firearm was seized and will be forensically examined.
The 23-year-old driver was charged with police pursuit – not stop – drive recklessly, drive motor vehicle during disqualification period and drive conveyance taken without consent of owner.
The second 23-year-old was charged with possess ammunition without holding licence/permit/authority and be carried in conveyance taken without consent of owner.
The third 23-year-old was charged with drive conveyance taken without consent of owner and custody of knife in public place.
All three were refused bail to appear in Newcastle Local Court tomorrow (Sunday 15 December 2019).

City of Newcastle is working with the family of Jill Emberson on a public memorial to be held at City Hall on 23 January 2020, following her sad passing overnight.
Lord Mayor of Newcastle Nuatali Nelmes said as Newcastle’s Citizen of the Year in 2019, Jill was a lion-hearted advocate in the fight against ovarian cancer.
“We are in awe of the courage Jill showed following her cancer diagnosis, as she remained determined to achieve better outcomes for others despite her own failing health.

“She used her own diagnosis to help raise invaluable awareness of ovarian cancer and more than $20 million for research.
“Jill was so incredibly generous with her time, despite knowing her cancer was terminal. I was in awe of her willingness to work with the city and even to make herself available to speak with our staff, all the while in ever worsening pain and suffering,” Cr Nelmes said.
Jill’s career in journalism gave her a platform to document the sometimes-lonely battle she and other women faced against the deadliest of all women’s cancers.
After she was forced off air in early 2016 due to illness, Jill began to advocate for more funding and research while undergoing her own treatment.
Upon returning to the airwaves in 2018, Jill intimately documented her experience with ovarian cancer in the popular podcast Still Jill. In June last year, policy makers took note of her National Press Club address, ‘The Cancer Down Under Killing Too Many Women’, before the Federal Government, influenced heavily by her fierce lobbying, committed $20 million to ovarian cancer research earlier in 2019.
“I am humbled and honoured to be named Citizen of the Year in Newcastle and will use this precious opportunity to raise more awareness about ovarian cancer,” Jill said when honoured at City Hall on Australia Day 2019.
“About 1,500 Australian women are diagnosed with Ovarian cancer each year but our survival rate has been stuck at 45 per cent for decades.
“Research is the only solution to bring our survival into line with other more common cancers and for that we need awareness and funding.”
The official colour of Ovarian Cancer Australia – teal – shone from the face of the City Hall clock that night, and the City plans to honour Jill once again following consultation with her family.
Vale Jill Emberson.

A man has died after a single-vehicle crash in the Hunter region this morning.
Around 2.35am today (Saturday 14 December 2019), a silver Toyota Landcruiser utility was travelling on Sandy Creek Road, Mount Vincent – near Cessnock – when it left the road and collided with a concrete drain, before rolling on its roof.
Officers attached to the Hunter Valley Police District attended, along with NSW Ambulance paramedics.
The driver, and the sole occupant of the vehicle – a 23-year-old male – died at the scene. He is yet to be formally identified.
A crime scene has been established and investigations into the circumstances surrounding the crash are continuing.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

A man will appear in court today after a police pursuit in the Lake Macquarie area this week.
About 12.20am on Wednesday (11 December 2019), police observed a Black Harley Davidson motorcycle travelling south on Merrigum Street, Windale – south of Newcastle.
The motorcycle rider attempted to avoid police using a median strip before speeding away in a northerly direction.
Officers attached to Lake Macquarie Police District pursued the bike as it travelled down Balemo Crescent and Cooreen Way, before the motorcycle, driven by a 25-year-old man, crashed at speed into a concrete garden bed on Cooreen Way.
The man then fled the scene, followed on foot by police and the dog unit.
Upon searching the motorcycle, police located a small, single shot-handgun lying on the ground.
Shortly after, the man was located in a garden on Kestrel Avenue in Mount Hutton.
He was arrested and taken to Belmont Police Station before being transferred to John Hunter Hospital to be treated for minor burns, minor lacerations and a possible broken collarbone.
Upon release from hospital, the 24-year-old was charged with the following offences:
Drive motor vehicle during disqualification period
Acquire pistol-subject to firearms prohibition order
Possess unregistered firearm-pistol
Not keep firearm safely-pistol
Possess unregistered unauthorised pistol in public place
Refuse or fail to submit to taking of blood sample
He was refused bail to appear in Belmont Local Court today (Friday 13 December 2019).

A man will re-appear in court today after being extradited from South Australia over the alleged sexual and indecent assault of two girls in the Hunter region.
In December 2018, detectives from the Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad commenced an investigation following reports a girl was sexually assaulted by a man known to her while she was in his care.
During the course of the investigation, officers received reports a second girl had been indecently assaulted by the man while she was in his care.
Following extensive inquiries, by officers from South Australia Police arrested a 60-year-old man on a NSW warrant at Port Pirie, South Australia, on Monday (9 December 2019).
The man appeared at Port Pirie Magistrates Court, where NSW Police Force detectives applied for and were granted his extradition to NSW.
He was escorted by detectives on a flight to Sydney yesterday (Wednesday 11 December 2019).
The man was taken to Mascot Police Station and charged with aggravated sexual assault – victim under authority of offender (x2), and indecent assault person under 16 years of age.
Police will allege in court that the man sexually assaulted a girl – aged between seven and eight – on two occasions in the Hunter region.
It will be further alleged that the man indecently assaulted a second girl – aged between nine and 10 – in the Hunter region.
He was refused bail and appeared at Central Local Court yesterday where he was formally refused bail to re-appear at Newcastle Local Court today (Thursday 12 December 2019).

This year City of Newcastle led the charge to a new, more accessible CBD by relocating to a modern office block in the West End.
Ninety years ago this week it blazed a similar trail, opening City Hall and the Civic Theatre upon completion of a twin £300,000 development dubbed “Civic Block”.
Council had by then outgrown a small Watt Street premises, which previously served as military offices during the days of the penal-colony, and moved west in parallel with large-scale industrial expansion.
^{Builders put the finishing touches on Civic Theatre as work progressed on City Hall’s clocktower.}
“Today we’re celebrating the 90^th birthdays of two jewels in the City’s architectural crown in Civic Theatre and City Hall,” Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said from Wheeler Place, a newly opened street back in 1929 between Hunter and King.
“Ninety years ago a great weeklong celebration kicked off in Newcastle to mark a development that shaped the City’s Civic Precinct. As well as the two grand openings, bands played for the community in King Edward Park, other entertainment featured a soccer tournament, competitive woodchop, surf carnival and aerial pageant at District Park, while a new floating dock was launched on the harbour.
“It’s hard to imagine those days of British pomp and pageantry, but the sense of civic pride associated with the two openings, and their city-making significance, leaps off the pages of news reports from that week.
^{City of Newcastle Manager Civic Services Manager with Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes and Manager Civic Theatre Leonie Wallace cutting the 90th birthday cake.}
The centrepiece of the “Civic Week” festivities was the theatre opening on the night of Thursday 12 December and City Hall two days later by NSW’s British Governor Sir Dudley de Chair, who arrived resplendent in white admiralty regalia.
“I congratulate you all upon your enterprise and achievement in the erection of this magnificent and spacious Town Hall, which is to play so important a part in the lives of the people of your city,” said the Governor in his speech on City Hall’s steps Saturday afternoon.
“This great building cannot but have an elevating and inspiring influence in every branch of life and labor in your city, and its erection will always stand as a monument to the foresight, public spiritedness and progressive ideals of your civic councillors.”
^{City Hall under construction.}
Memorial lights dedicated to the founder of the Civic Block, Alderman Morris Light, were unveiled outside Town Hall, as were portraits of the City’s first Mayor, James Hannell.
The Civic Theatre, described by the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner’s Advocate as one of the “finest theatres in the Commonwealth”, was “a scene of magnificence” for the Thursday night opening, as guests gathered to enjoy entertainment on a cutting-edge movie screen.
The great racehorse Phar Lap featured in a screening of that year’s Melbourne Cup followed by a recorded oration from then-Prime Minister James Scullin and the romantic drama Behind That Curtain, the “most thrilling Talkie Ever Made” according to the official opening night program.
It was like “a palace in a book of fairy tales”, dutifully reported the local newspaper, filled with “a happy, well-dressed crowd, representatives of every form of Newcastle endeavour” who “witnessed the opening of a theatre glowing with soft lights exquisitely blended, revealing each beautiful feature.”
^{Civic Theatre under construction.}
Notable billings in the Civic Theatre’s long history include The Robe in 1954, the first film shot in widescreen Cinemascope; Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats The Musical in 1989, legendary British rock band Oasis in 2002 and local rock gods Silverchair in 2003.
The Civic Theatre is still the hub of live performance in Newcastle and tomorrow’s anniversary evening will double as the 2020 season launch, now an annual event.
^{Pages from a souvenir brochure printed for Civic Theatre’s opening.}