That was then, this is now

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Welcome to readers of The Local. Below you will find links to web pages that accompany the “That was then, this is now” articles published each month. On these pages you can view the photos in higher resolution by clicking on an image. These pages also have additional material such as photos, maps, references to old newspaper articles, and links to other relevant sites.

This series of articles, running for more than 10 years now, had its genesis in a blog post I wrote in January 2015: My holiday historical adventure.

  1. February 2015 – Lambton Colliery
  2. March 2015 – Newcastle to Plattsburg Tramway Cutting
  3. April 2015 – The Dividing Lines
  4. May 2015 – The Many Roads to Town
  5. June 2015 – A Little Light History
  6. July 2015 – In Search of Paddy Lewis
  7. August 2015 – Post and Telegraph Office, Lambton
  8. September 2015 – Electric Light Station
  9. October 2015 – Lambton Park
  10. November 2015 – Lambton Park Rotunda
  11. December 2015 – Church life, Anglican
  12. January 2016 – Maps
  13. February 2016 – Mosquito Pit
  14. March 2016 – “Hollywood” depression era shanty town
  15. April 2016 – Council mergers
  16. May 2016 – Mechanics’ Institute, Lambton
  17. June 2016 – Thomas Croudace
  18. July 2016 – Lambton Fire Brigade
  19. August 2016 – The Omnibus
  20. September 2016 – Matthew Charlton
  21. October 2016 – Transport history
  22. November 2016 – Stoker’s Hotel, Lambton
  23. December 2016 – Church Life, Catholic
  24. January 2017 – Maps, Bridges Road
  25. February 2017 – Drains
  26. March 2017 – Doctor John James Hill
  27. April 2017 – History under our feet, Lewis Oval
  28. May 2017 – Lambton Courthouse
  29. June 2017 – Arthur Lydney Payne
  30. July 2017 – Blackbutt Reserve
  31. August 2017 – Power Station Plaque
  32. September 2017 – Croudace’s Paddock (Jesmond Park)
  33. October 2017 – Jack Burnley
  34. November 2017 – Lambton Reservoir
  35. December 2017 – Welsh Congregational Church, Lambton
  36. January 2018 – Barrett’s 1910 Map
  37. February 2018 – The Hand of Friendship Hotel, New Lambton
  38. March 2018 – Lambton Aldermen
  39. April 2018 – New Lambton Aldermen
  40. May 2018 – “Dog and Rat” Colliery
  41. June 2018 – New Lambton Colliery
  42. July 2018 – Rankin Park Hospital
  43. August 2018 – Albert Henry McEwan
  44. September 2018 – New Lambton C Pit Strike of 1888
  45. October 2018
  46. December 2018 – Commercial Hotel
  47. January 2019 – Lambton to Mayfield tramway
  48. February 2019 – The well travelled brick
  49. March 2019 – Adamstown Council Chambers
  50. April 2019 – The Sturey Mystery
  51. May 2019 – Clearing up the halls
  52. June 2019 – The Commonage
  53. July 2019 – Hutton Printing & Paper Co
  54. August 2019 – Drain plane – District Park aerodrome
  55. September 2019 – Lawson Crichton – Lambton Cooperative Store
    • October 2019 – no article this month
  56. November 2019 – James Gray, Undertaker, Adamstown
  57. December 2019 – Clash of Armies – Lambton Salvation Army.
  58. January 2020 – History in our streets – Chilcott St, Lambton.
  59. February 2020 – New Lambton Public School – 140 years
  60. March 2020 – No. 2 Fighter Sector, New Lambton Public School
  61. April 2020 – Adamstown Tram, 1900-1950
  62. May 2020 – William Conn
  63. June 2020 – Burning Style, Waratah and Parry St incinerators
  64. July 2020 – New Lambton Post Office
  65. August 2020 – Ralph Snowball
  66. September 2020 – Adamstown Rifle Range
  67. October 2020 – Morgan’s Store, Lambton
  68. November 2020 – A Picnic Homecoming (Lambton Public School outing to Toronto by train)
  69. December 2020 – Adamstown Post Office
  70. January 2021 – Reservoir Hotel, Lambton
  71. February 2021 – East Lambton Colliery (in New Lambton)
  72. March 2021 – Gittins and Eastham Store (Broadmeadow Co-operative Society)
  73. April 2021 – Thomas Bevan, Undertaker and more
  74. May 2021 – George Bell, Grocer
  75. June 2021 – Furnace Feast
  76. July 2021 – Charles Noble
  77. August 2021 – “Darkness Into Light” – Lambton’s jubilee celebrations of 1921 and the return of electric street lighting.
  78. September 2021 – New Lambton Mechanics’ Institute
  79. October 2021 – William Thomas Dent
    • November 2021 – no article this month
  80. December 2021 – A very long road story – Marshall St and the Inner City Bypass
  81. January 2022 – A Timely Trophy – Fire Brigade Demonstration Days 1888
  82. February 2022 – Lambton Central Collieries
  83. March 2022 – “Hums of the Wheel” – Newcastle Bicycle Carnival March 1897 and the A A Company’s Garden Suburb subdivision.
  84. April 2022 – Adamstown Railway Station and Crossing
  85. May 2022 – Robinson’s Farm, Orchardtown, New Lambton
  86. June 2022 – Ebbw Vale Colliery
  87. July 2022 – New Lambton Fire Station
  88. August 2022 – The “Baby” Coal Mines of Lambton-Waratah
  89. September 2022 – WAAAF Hostel, New Lambton
  90. October 2022 – Leonora Glass Industries
  91. November 2022 – Adamstown Fire and Police Station
  92. December 2022 – Newcastle to Sydney telephone line
  93. January 2023 – Broadmeadow Planes and Plans, Tiger Moth crash in January 1953.
  94. February 2023 – Coal Miners’ Strike of 1896
    • March 2023  – no article this month
  95. April 2023 – General Roberts Hotel, New Lambton
  96. May 2023 – Corner Commerce – Thomas Griffiths hairdresser, and Oldham’s Butcher Shop
  97. June 2023 – Sadly bungled street names – the 1889-1992 street names of New Lambton
  98. July 2023 – Waratah Council Chambers
  99. August 2023 – History in 3D – the stereoscopic photographs of Ralph Snowball
  100. September 2023 – Cycling century run
  101. October 2023 – Premier Hotel, Broadmeadow
  102. November 2023 – Herbert’s Theatre De Luxe, Broadmeadow
  103. December 2023 – New Lambton Quarry Tramways
  104. January 2024 – New Lambton’s “Super Sentinel” steam lorry
  105. February 2024 – A Panoramic Peep Over Lambton and New Lambton
  106. March 2024 – Lambton passenger train service
  107. April 2024 – New Lambton Anglican Church
  108. May 2024 – Merewether Army Encampment 1897
  109. June 2024 – Lambton Drill Hall
  110. July 2024 – Marquis of Lorne Hotel, Lambton
  111. August 2024 – Lambton Colliery Centre Pit Tragedy, 1878
  112. September 2024 – Adamstown Hotel
  113. October 2024 – Kotara Railway Station
  114. November 2024 – YY Aerated Water Company
  115. December 2024 – Royal Crown Hotel, Adamstown
    • January 2025 – no article, The Local not published this month
  116. February 2025 – Lost Names – “White Gates”
  117. March 2025 – New Lambton’s Real Estate Riot
  118. April 2025 – Lancers in Lambton (coming soon)

Other local history content on this site

In addition to the monthly “Then and Now” articles for The Local, I occasionally publish other short articles on local history.

My interest in researching and writing about local history stemmed from a series of ‘then and now’ photograph blog posts I wrote over the summer of 2014/15 soon after I had moved to Lambton.

During the Covid pandemic in 2020 I published a series of ‘then and now’ photographs relating to trams and tramways.

Visual indexes

Local history blog posts

Acknowledgements

  • My thanks to University of Newcastle Special Collections for maintaining a fabulous repository of historic photos, originally in Flickr and now in their Living Histories website.
  • Thanks also to Robert Watson for research assistance, fact checking, proof reading, ideas and inspiration.
  • Julie Keating has also been a valued collaborator with me over the years.

Questions and Answers

In doing this research, I seem to find more questions than answers, so I have a page of unanswered questions concerning Lambton’s local history, and another smaller but hopefully growing page of answered questions.

7 thoughts on “That was then, this is now”

  1. Lachlan I am Investigating the old Prison on Parnell Place there is a Ralf Snowball Picture of at the Fort that clearly shows the old gallows and a imposing building on Parnell place but the date given was when the tram termus was there and they took 26 Ft of that hill site. That was the same ht as scratchily .and how did the investigations of the powder tunnels go

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  2. Hi, I have been researching the history of the house my Mum grew up, in Broadmeadow Road, Broadmeadow. It was built c1894 on land that was part of the Commonage Allotments of 1890. During my research I discovered that Broadmeadow Road (or part of it?) was also known as Waratah Road until the late 1920s. It appears that c1929, the houses were renumbered and the reference to Waratah Road disappeared. Any ideas as to why this happened? My research to date has not produced any clues. Also, thanks for the interesting articles and the old maps. I have learned a lot!

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    • I had not heard of parts of Broadmeadow Road being called Waratah road before. Interestingly, I cannot find any of the early maps with that road marked as “Waratah Road”, but a search in Trove clearly shows there was a “Waratah Road” in Broadmeadow, with the references spanning from about 1900 to about 1930.

      I don’t know why the name got changed. My suspicion is that “Waratah Road” was just an informal, rather than an official name for the road, and that the informal name fell out of use as the suburbs grew, as house numbering got introduced and as street name signs were erected. But that’s just my guess.

      Reply ↓

  4. Hi I from 1949 when born till 1970 lived on Howe St Lambton several houses up from Allan Kemlo who told me of your site, I’m so pleased to have found it. Lambton always will be very close to my Heart – I’ll be back when I’ve got more time to watch the video and to read more – many thanks – cheers, Maree

    Reply ↓

  5. Pingback: Words, Then and Now | A bit of this, a bit of that

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