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Henry Beaufoy Merlin

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112-540: Henry Beaufoy Merlin (1830–1873) was an Australian photographer, showman, illusionist and illustrator. In the 1850s he worked as a theatrical showman and performer in Sydney, Newcastle and Maitland . In 1863 he was the first person to introduce Pepper's ghost to Australia. After this, he took up photography and between 1869 and 1872 turned the American Australasian Photographic Company into one of

224-723: A horse racing club , the Kyneton District Racing Club, which schedules around sixteen race meetings a year including the Kyneton Cup meeting in November (always the day after the Melbourne Cup ). In 2009, the Kyneton District Racing Club partnered with the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE to use the facilities of the racecourse and its extensive grounds as an educational training facility. Golfers play at

336-589: A magistrates' court on Mondays. In the 2021 Census, there were 7,513 people in Kyneton. 79.5% of people were born in Australia. The next most common country of birth was England at 4.2%. 89.1% of people spoke only English at home. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 48.2%, Catholic 20.7% and Anglican 9.2%. [3] Kyneton's main locally produced newspaper is the Midland Express , which also serves

448-556: A 31-year monopoly on that town's coal traffic. Other collieries were within a 16 km (10 mi) radius of the town. Principal coal mines were located at Stockton , Tighes Hill , Carrington and the Newcastle Coal and Copper Company's collieries at Merewether (includes the Glebe), Wallsend and the Waratah collieries. All operations had closed by the early 1960s. On 10 December 1831,

560-410: A bronze medal "against all-comers from every part of the world", the only first prize awarded for soap and candles. Following World War I the company was sold to Messrs Lever & Kitchen (today Unilever ), and the factory closed in the mid-1930s. In 1911, BHP chose the city as the site for its steelworks due to the abundance of coal. The land put aside was prime real estate, on the southern edge of

672-631: A deep debt of gratitude to Beaufoy Merlin, for his photography proved to be the true historian of that time and place—incomparable, authentic[,] unchallengeable." In 2013 the Holtermann collection of photographs was listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme . Newcastle, New South Wales Newcastle , also commonly referred to as Greater Newcastle ( locally / ˈ nj uː k ɑː s əl / NEW -kah-səl ; Awabakal : Mulubinba )

784-526: A fleet of freighters as well as several fast passenger vessels, including the PS Newcastle and the PS Namoi . The Namoi had first-class cabins with the latest facilities. Because of the coal supply, small ships plied between Newcastle and Sydney, Brisbane , Melbourne and Adelaide , carrying coal to gas works and bunkers for shipping, and railways. These were commonly known as sixty-milers , referring to

896-464: A large incentive for investment in the Newcastle and Hunter region due to its status as a major coal mining and export hub to Asian markets. Large projects related to the coal industry helped to propel the Newcastle unemployment rate to 20 year lows and allow the Newcastle region to weather the effects of the late 2000s recession better than NSW as a whole. As of 2009, the two largest single employers are

1008-548: A licence to establish a Marionette theatre , 'executed with mechanical figures.' Merlin opened in the old Olympic Circus building in Castlereagh Street and a month later went on the road with the 'burlesque theatre' holding a number of shows, including a performance of Bombastes Furioso by William Rhodes . By 1855 Merlin had set up an amateur theatre in Maitland where he started referring to himself as Henry B. Muriel. Around

1120-727: A major stop for those heading to the gold rushes at Mount Alexander and Bendigo . The post office opened on 1 July 1843 as Mount Macedon and was renamed Kyneton on 1 January 1854. Local government came to Kyneton with the proclamation of the Kyneton Municipal District in 1857. This body was short-lived, as it was amalgamated with the Carlsruhe, the Lauriston & Edgecombe, and the Tylden & Trentham Road Districts in December 1864 to form

1232-577: A new process invented by Merlin. As the year progressed Holtermann remained continued to support Merlin in his photographic endeavours. In March, the Governor of New South Wales, Hercules Robinson, visited Hill End and Merlin captured the banners strung across the street to welcome him. In April, Merlin was in Bathurst photographing the town for Holtermann. And, on 5 July, the Town and Country Journal posted an article by

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1344-494: A series of articles on the recent discoveries made by the expedition of HMS Basilisk to New Guinea. At the same time, he continued with his photographic work and his image of the French warship Atalante at Fitzroy Dock on Cockatoo Island, Sydney, is one Merlin himself acknowledged as among his best works. Soon after this, Merlin left Sydney to photograph the townships of Orange and Dubbo. His account of this journey, which appeared in

1456-633: A sitting government anywhere in Australia since World War II . Labor won just 20 seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly ; of these, only two ( Cessnock and Wallsend ) were in the Hunter Region . Before the election, the Liberal Party only held one seat in the entire Hunter Region (the seat of Port Stephens , which the party narrowly gained from Labor in 2007 ). However, at the subsequent state election in 2015 , although

1568-513: A successful travelling landscape photographer and he was working on an album of landscapes for His Excellency the Governor of Victoria as well as taking photographs for the Prince of Wales who was to visit Sydney in the same year. In June 1869, he was at Emerald Hill giving a 'highly-interesting and instructive lecture The Pilgrim's Progress, illustrated with beautiful dissolving views.' His experiences over this period must have convinced him that there

1680-432: A writer were of a superior kind, although the want of leisure greatly interfered with his literary tastes. Whilst Merlin was well known as a photographer at the time of his death, it was not until 1951 that the extent of his photographic achievement, and that of his assistant, Charles Bayliss , was realised with the discovery of approximately 3,000 glass photographic negatives neatly packed in cedar and metal boxes. The find

1792-760: Is Starrett Park in New Lambton, known for its playground and lush grass. Newcastle has a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) that is typical of the Australian east coast. Precipitation is heaviest in late autumn and early winter, while the second half of the year is slightly drier on average. The climate is generally moderated by the Pacific Ocean to the east. Summers are mostly warm and humid with periods of very dry and hot weather occasionally due to hot west to north-westerly winds, which can bring temperatures in excess of 40 °C (104 °F). The highest recorded temperature

1904-470: Is a regional metropolitan area and the second-most-populous such area of New South Wales , Australia. It includes the cities of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie and it is the hub of the Lower Hunter region, which includes most parts of the cities of Newcastle , Lake Macquarie , Maitland , Cessnock , and Port Stephens Council . Newcastle is also known by its colloquial nickname, Newy . Located at

2016-476: Is a vibrant arts scene in the city including a highly regarded art gallery, and an active Hunter Writers' Centre. Recent fictional representations (for example Antoinette Eklund's 'Steel River') present a new vision of the city, using the city's historic past as a backdrop for contemporary fiction. The old central business district, located at Newcastle's eastern end, still has a considerable number of historic buildings, dominated by Christ Church Cathedral, seat of

2128-449: Is dominated by sand dunes, swamps and multiple river channels. A "green belt" protecting plant and wildlife flanks the city from the west (Watagan mountains) around to the north where it meets the coast just north of Stockton. Urban development is mainly restricted to the hilly southern bank. The small town of Stockton sits opposite central Newcastle at the river mouth and is linked by ferry. Road access between Stockton and central Newcastle

2240-511: Is generally labelled as the 'Greater Newcastle Area' includes the LGAs of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock and Port Stephens. In 2021 this region had a total population of 682,465. Of people in the Newcastle metropolitan area, 83.6 per cent were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 2.3%, New Zealand 1.0%, China 0.7%, India 0.5% and Philippines 0.4%. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.8% of

2352-539: Is held in the Newcastle Showground annually. There are a mixture of typical regional show elements such as woodchopping displays, showbags, rides and stalls and usually fireworks to complement the events in the main arena. Kyneton Kyneton ( / ˈ k aɪ n t ən / KYNE -tən ) is a town in the Macedon Ranges region of central Victoria , Australia . The Calder Freeway bypasses Kyneton to

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2464-470: Is the University of Newcastle . It was established in 1951 as a satellite campus of the University of New South Wales and obtained autonomy in 1965. The university now offers over 150 undergraduate and graduate courses to a student population of more than 38,000, including 7,000 international students from more than 113 countries. The main campus is in the suburb of Callaghan about 12 km (7 mi) from

2576-608: Is the council seat of the Shire of Macedon Ranges . At the 2021 census , Kyneton recorded a population of 7,513. The region is located on the border of Djadjawurrung and Taungurong country. Before British colonisation these Indigenous Australian people resided mostly along the Coliban and Campaspe Rivers . Village-like communities existed in particular in the area around the junction of these rivers. Large in-ground stone ovens which they used to cook meat and murnong were commonly found in

2688-549: Is via the Stockton Bridge , a distance of 20 km (12 mi). Much of the city is undercut by the coal measures of the Sydney sedimentary basin, and what were once numerous coal-mining villages located in the hills and valleys around the port have merged into a single urban area extending southwards to Lake Macquarie . The Greater Newcastle area is situated right between the Central Coast and Mid North Coast regions, with

2800-465: Is where the annual Lost Trades Fair and the Daffodil Festival were founded. It is home to many galleries and artist studios, including but not limited to: Stockroom, The Old Auction house, The Golden Dog Gallery, Art on Piper, Lauriston Press, John Lloyd Gallery and Colours of White to name a few. The Macedon Ranges holds two art specific events, The Dayesford and Macedon Ranges open studios and

2912-591: The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle . Other noteworthy buildings include Fort Scratchley , the Ocean Baths, the old Customs House , the 1920s City Hall , the 1890s Longworth Institute (once regarded as the finest building in the colony) and the 1930s art deco University House (formerly NESCA House, seen in the film Superman Returns ). Newcastle is on the southern bank of the Hunter River mouth. The northern side

3024-828: The Awabakal and Worimi Aboriginal people, who called the area Malubimba. Based on Aboriginal-language references documented in maps, sketches and geological descriptions, eight landmarks have been officially dual-named by the NSW Geographic Names Board with their traditional Aboriginal names. They include Nobbys Head also known as Whibayganba; Flagstaff Hill also known as Tahlbihn; Pirate Point also known as Burrabihngarn; Port Hunter also known as Yohaaba; Hunter River (South Channel) also known as Coquun; Shepherds Hill also known as Khanterin; Ironbark Creek also known as Toohrnbing and Hexham Swamp also known as Burraghihnbihng. In September 1797, Lieutenant John Shortland became

3136-569: The CBD . There are three campuses of the Hunter Institute of TAFE , one located in the Newcastle CBD, one in the suburb of Hamilton East and the other located in the suburb of Tighes Hill . The Tighes Hill campus is the network's largest campus and offers courses in business, hospitality and various trades. Newcastle holds a variety of cultural events and festivals. The Newcastle Regional Show

3248-685: The Cockle Creek Smelter was built. The largest factory of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere was constructed in 1885, on an 8.9-hectare (22-acre) site between the suburbs of Tighes Hill and Port Waratah, by Charles Upfold , from London, for his Sydney Soap and Candle Company, to replace a smaller factory in Wickham. Their soap products won 17 medals at International Exhibitions. At the Sydney International Exhibition they won

3360-504: The Governor of New South Wales from 1800, decided on a more positive approach to exploit the now obvious natural resources of the Hunter Valley . In 1801, a convict camp called King's Town (named after the governor) was established to mine coal and cut timber. In the same year, the first shipment of coal was dispatched to Sydney. This settlement closed less than a year later. A settlement

3472-839: The Newcastle Steelworks , Parnell Place in the city's East End, the breakwall and Art Deco Ocean baths. There were no casualties in the attack and damage was minimal. The Port of Newcastle remains the economic and trade centre for the resource-rich Hunter Valley and for much of the north and north-west of New South Wales. Newcastle is the world's largest coal export port and Australia's oldest and second-largest tonnage throughput port, with over 3,000 shipping movements handling cargo of 95.8 Mt per annum, of which coal exports represented 90.8 Mt in 2008–09. The volume of coal exported, and attempts to increase coal exports, are opposed by environmental groups including Newcastle-based Rising Tide Australia . These have undertaken various protests targeting

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3584-515: The Southern Hemisphere night skies due to relatively low light pollution levels as opposed to Australian cities. The Cobaw Plateau is host to a 500-hectare facility for astronomical observation. The Macedon Ranges is home to the most artists per capita in Victoria. Kyneton, with the beauty in the changing seasons and enthusiastic cafe culture, is a hub for artists and crafts people. Kyneton

3696-508: The centre-right Liberal Party has ever been consistently competitive is the Port Stephens region in the north of the Newcastle metropolitan area, as well as in some beachside, middle-class suburbs near the Newcastle CBD such as Bar Beach and Merewether . The Port Stephens area is traditionally marginal and while historically was dominated by Labor, has been won by the Liberals. One time

3808-506: The solar eclipse on 12 December. Unfortunately, after they had set up their instruments on Eclipse Island the day proved too overcast and, even though he continued to expose the plates Merlin described their trip to have been in vain. On the return journey, Merlin experimented with taking a series of coastline views of the Whitsunday Passage and succeeded in recording a considerable portion of it. These he thought would prove useful to

3920-524: The 'Photographic Artist of Holtermann's Exhibition,' presumably Merlin, which extolled the beauty of the countryside, and the described the 102 main buildings in the town as well as the character of its inhabitants. By the end of July, he was back in Sydney, taking more photographs for the exhibition and working on a series of large three-foot transparent photographs, hundreds of which were intended for Holtermann's Exposition. The positive transparencies were created by enlarging his original negatives and their size

4032-638: The 'supervision of the Landscape Department' and attending to all orders, weather permitting. This arrangement may have been a way to shore up the company before Merlin's final adventure for 1871. On 27 November, Merlin left Sydney on the steamship Governor Blackall as a part of the Australian Solar Eclipse Expedition bound for North Queensland . Accompanying him on board were a 'who's who' of Australia's natural historians and scientists all of whom were travelling to Cape Sidmouth to view

4144-603: The 1970s. These downturns were particularly hard hitting for heavy industry which was particularly prevalent in Newcastle. The early 1990s recession caused significant job losses across Australia and the Newcastle region experienced a peak unemployment rate of 17% in February 1993, compared to 12.1% in New South Wales and 11.9% across Australia. In 1999, the steelworks closed after 84 years' operation and had employed about 50,000 during its existence, many for decades. The closure of

4256-540: The 4th and 12th regiments of Light Horse at the Battle of Beersheba (1917) against Turkish troops of the Ottoman Empire. Henry Gregory (politician) (1860-1940), Western Australian State and Federal politician, was born and educated in Kyneton. Sir Stanley Argyle , Premier of Victoria 1932–35, was born in Kyneton in 1867 and the family lived at Rock House, a double fronted double story bluestone house that still stands to

4368-462: The AAPC offices were located in the city, much of the business was being done in country areas. The AAPC business model adopted a new methodology to increase efficiency and mitigate the costs of travelling to country towns. And this seems in part shaped by the many years Merlin had spent promoting his theatrical events. Firstly, advertisements in local papers would alert the residents that a representative of

4480-738: The Australian Agricultural Company officially opened Australia's first railway, at the intersection of Brown & Church Streets, Newcastle. Privately owned and operated to service the A Pit coal mine, it was a cast-iron fishbelly rail on an inclined plane as a gravitational railway . In the 1850s, a major copper smelting works was established at Burwood, near Merewether. An engraving of this appeared in The Illustrated London News on 11 February 1854. The English and Australian Copper Company built another substantial works at Broadmeadow circa 1890, and in that decade

4592-475: The BHP steelworks occurred at a time of strong economic expansion in Australia. At the time of the closure and since the closure Newcastle experienced a significant amount of economic diversification which has strengthened the local economy. Since 2003, Australia experienced the effects of the 2000s commodities boom as commodities prices for major export good such as coal and iron ore rose significantly. This provided

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4704-528: The Central Coast bordering in the south and the Mid North Coast bordering in the north as well as other Hunter local government areas (outside of Newcastle) bordering in the west and north-west. Newcastle has several public parks including King Edward Park, which was designated in 1863. Features of the park include coastal views, a sunken garden and a Victorian rotunda. Another noteworthy park of Newcastle

4816-583: The City of Newcastle and the Newcastle metropolitan area. The area, officially the Newcastle Statistical District, is referred to as Greater Newcastle or the Lower Hunter Region, which includes most parts of the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Cessnock, Maitland and Port Stephens local government areas and, as of 30 June 2009, has an estimated population of 540,796. Despite their proximity, all of

4928-566: The Coalition retained majority government (and subsequently retained government again in 2019 before Labor formed a minority government in 2023 ), the party lost all of its Hunter-based seats. There are three federal electoral divisions that are mostly or entirely within Greater Newcastle: Newcastle (covering the inner-city suburbs; this seat has only ever elected Labor MPs since it was created in 1901 ), Paterson (covering

5040-585: The Hunter New England Area Health Service and the University of Newcastle . The National Stock Exchange of Australia (formerly Newcastle Stock Exchange) was formerly based in the city. With its history as a traditionally working-class area, Newcastle has been a stronghold for the centre-left Labor Party at all levels of politics since Federation . Labor currently holds every federal and state seat that overlaps at least partially with Newcastle. The only area of Greater Newcastle where

5152-549: The Kyneton United Road District. The Kyneton United Road District was almost immediately redesignated as Kyneton Shire in January 1865. It absorbed part of Glenlyon Shire in 1873, Malmsbury Borough in 1915 and part of Ballan Shire in 1921. In 1995 Kyneton Shire was abolished by part being amalgamated with Creswick Shire, part of Daylesford & Glenlyon Shire and part of Talbot & Clunes Shire to form Hepburn Shire, and

5264-493: The LGAs in the region maintain their own individual identities, separate from Newcastle. The population of the suburb of Newcastle is 3,852 as of the 2021 census. The demonym for the people of Newcastle is "Novocastrian", derived from Latin novus (new) and castra (castle or fort). Coal mining began in earnest on 3 May 1833 when the Australian Agricultural Company received land grants at Newcastle plus

5376-463: The Liberals did win seats in Newcastle was at the 2011 state election . At this election, the incumbent Labor government, led by then- Premier Kristina Keneally , was defeated by the Liberal - National Coalition , led by then- Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell , in a landslide , suffering the worst ever defeat of a sitting government in New South Wales history and (at the time) the worst defeat of

5488-585: The Macedon Ranges Arts Trail. It is also home to quaint bookstores and many excellent cafes. Kyneton is centrally located among several outlying towns and serves as an educational hub for primary and secondary students. The following educational institutions are located in the main township: The town has an Australian rules football team, Kyneton Football Club , competing in the Riddell District Football League . Kyneton has

5600-606: The New South Wales branch of the Company. He was replaced by Mr. Carlisle who continued to use photographic staff from the company. He then packed up his camera and equipment and headed off to the newly discovered goldfields at Hill End , Tambaroora and Gulgong near Bathurst, New South Wales . This arrangement does not mean Merlin left the company, in fact he continued to supply Carlisle with negatives of Hill End to print. Merlin's photographs of shops, hotels, theatres, mines and batteries were supplemented by more traditional portraits of

5712-466: The Northern Biolinks corridor, Rollinson Reserve Horse riding facilities, The Cascades, etc Kyneton Museum, located in the old Bank of New South Wales building (built in 1856 ), houses an extensive collection of local historical items. Being located well away from any heavily populated areas and their inherent light pollution , Kyneton is also a destination for astronomers seeking a clear view of

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5824-529: The Port Stephens area as well as the nearby city of Maitland and the town of Kurri Kurri ; this seat is currently a marginal Labor seat that the Liberals have won previously, though it historically included more rural areas and did not include Maitland or Kurri Kurri) and Shortland (a fairly safe Labor seat that includes the eastern suburbs of the Lake Macquarie region in southern Newcastle, and extends to

5936-571: The Town and Country Journal, praised the people and the climate and reads almost like a caption for one of the proposed album of views for Holtermann's Exposition. On 27 September 1873 Merlin died after a very short illness at his home in Little Abercrombie Street, Leichhardt, Sydney. The cause was an 'inflammation of the lungs supervening upon the epidemic (a kind of influenza) which has lately been so general in Sydney.' The Evening News , which recorded his death, also gave an insight into

6048-518: The Victorian gold rushes , having been established in 1850, whereas separation occurred and the gold rushes started the year after. Construction of Kyneton’s oldest surviving stone building, the Church of England Rectory, located at 61 Ebden Street, commenced in 1850 and is a rare surviving example of a pre-gold rush and pre-separation dwelling. At this time, Kyneton was a growing rural centre, and served as

6160-586: The Vienna Exhibition but when this opened in September 1873 there were no displays from New South Wales. Regardless of these setbacks, Merlin worked with his normal diligence preparing his collections for the Exposition without knowing when they would finally open. His primary focus continued to be the work for Holtermann but he also found time to write journalistic articles for the papers. In August 1873 he produced

6272-435: The character of this highly motivated and successful man: Mr. Merlin had won the esteem of a wide circle of friends by his kindness of heart, and singularly unpretentious, straight-forward, and genial character. Energetic, temperate, and active to a remarkable degree, his unexpected decease [sic.] will surprise as well as grieve all to whom he was known. As a photographic artist, he was almost without rival, while his talents as

6384-544: The church of St Mary in Bow, Middlesex , and it was under this name he and Louisa moved back to Australia. By July Merlin was settled in Melbourne where he embarked on a new theatrical enterprise which projected a spectral illusion onto a stage. This spectral illusion, popularly known as Pepper's ghost , used a series of angled sheets of glass to project a ghost onto the stage alongside the actors. A provisional patent had been lodged in England by John Henry Pepper and Henry Dircks in February 1863, and this may have been why it

6496-424: The company representatives did not press their sale while on location. Instead, the negatives were stored at the head offices in Melbourne and Sydney and prints put on display there. From here they could be ordered as required. Agents were also employed by the company to sell photographs on commission. In October, Merlin left Sydney to take photographs of Wollongong and Kiama leaving Charles Bayliss in charge of

6608-409: The company would be arriving. Once there, the photographer would take a photograph of every house and building. The negatives would then be sent back to head office where they could be stored. As orders came in, either through the AAPC photographer or AACP representatives in the town, prints were made and sent to the purchaser. This approach appears to have been set in place almost from the inception of

6720-500: The company. In September 1869, the company arrived in Beechworth where advertisements in the Oven and Murray Advertiser stated the town's residences would be photographed. As the year drew to a close, Merlin still appears to have been handling the bulk of the photography work. The AAPC advertisements from this period also make it clear he was making his way towards Sydney through Emerald Hill (June), Beechworth (September), Shepparton (October) and Wangaratta (November). In December, he

6832-686: The cooler months and sleet is a common feature. Kyneton offers tourists several points of interest locally including the Botanic Gardens (established in the mid-1800s ) and several walks along the Campaspe River . Various Farmers Markets and festivals throughout the year make the town popular as a day trip destination. The township also serves as a starting point for many nearby destinations, such as Trentham Falls and Hanging Rock in Newham . There are many attractions that can be accessed from Kyneton’s Northern Gateway including Black Hill Reserve, Bald Hill Reserve, Green Hill, Turpin Falls, Kyneton golf course, Kyneton Bushland Resort, Kyneton Ridge Winery,

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6944-515: The country describing Holtermann's new and ambitious scheme to promote Australia's industrial resources and to seek submissions from interested parties before the proposed opening in eight months time. Holtermann engaged Merlin to take panoramas and views of all the towns and gold-fields in the colonies which would then be used to create albums of each town and gold-field, containing statistical information and other valuable matter. These photographs were to be presented as large transparent pictures using

7056-519: The deep-water port and the area's abundant coal. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colony's first export. Newcastle gained a reputation as a "hellhole" as it was a place where the most dangerous convicts were sent to dig in the coal mines as harsh punishment for their crimes. By the start of the 19th century the mouth of the Hunter River was being visited by diverse groups of men, including coal diggers, timber-cutters, and more escaped convicts. Philip Gidley King ,

7168-451: The export of coal from the city, such as in 2023 when 3000 people took part in a water based blockade and 109 were arrested. Newcastle had a shipbuilding industry with the Walsh Island Dockyard & Engineering Works , State Dockyard and Forgacs Shipyard . In recent years the only major ship-construction contract awarded to the area was the construction of the Huon -class minehunters . The era of extensive heavy industry passed when

7280-449: The far northeastern suburbs of the Central Coast ). The traditionally Labor-held seat of Hunter (now a marginal Labor seat) is based around the western portion of the Hunter , but includes some western and Southern suburbs of Newcastle. On the state level, there are five electoral districts that are located entirely within Greater Newcastle; of these, four ( Charlestown , Newcastle , Port Stephens and Swansea ) are Labor seats while

7392-419: The first European to explore the area. His discovery of the area was largely accidental; as he had been sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized a locally built vessel called Cumberland as she was sailing from Sydney Cove . While returning, Lt. Shortland entered what he later described as "a very fine river", which he named after New South Wales' Governor John Hunter . He returned with reports of

7504-412: The fore when the largest piece of reef-gold in the world was discovered in the Star of Hope mine on 19 October 1872. Holtermann approached Merlin, who photographed it before it was sent to the crusher and took several photographs of Holtermann and his partner Beyer. Then on 30 October, Merlin wrote a long biographical article praising Holtermann's hard work and persistence, which had kept the mine running in

7616-470: The grounds of Newcastle East Public School. There are three selective state schools in the area: The two main independent schools in Newcastle are Newcastle Grammar School and St Philip's Christian College , both coeducational K–12 schools. The local area is also home to two Steiner schools : the Newcastle Waldorf School at Glendale in Lake Macquarie , and the Linuwel Steiner School in East Maitland . The city's main provider of tertiary education

7728-464: The harbour. In 1915, the Newcastle Steelworks opened, beginning a period of some 80 years dominating the steel works and heavy industry. As Mayfield and the suburbs surrounding the steelworks declined in popularity because of pollution, the steelworks thrived, becoming the region's largest employer. Newcastle as a traditional area of heavy industry was not immune from the effects of economic downturns that plagued New South Wales and wider Australia since

7840-410: The illusion was presented by Merlin himself a part of a lecture on spiritualism. When a presentation of 'The Ghost' arrived at the Victoria Theatre in Adelaide in October 1863, it was Woollaston and a Mr. Solomon who were being credited as the main instigators. On 21 January 1865, H. Merlin, opened the 'Kyneton Photographic Studio' in Piper Street, Kyneton , a small town in northern Victoria. The studio

7952-498: The insolvency proceedings had been resolved and, with no more creditors, Merlin appears to have moved to Ballarat where his mother, now a widow, was also living. Included in a description of the Ballarat District Exhibition for 1866, photographs by Roberts and Merlin of Ballarat are mentioned alongside Mrs. Forster's wax flowers and fruits which were described as being, 'so beautiful that it is difficult to wish for anything better.' By February 1869 his contemporaries were touting him as

8064-495: The last convicts in 1823, the town was freed from the infamous influence of the penal law. It began to acquire the aspect of a typical Australian pioneer settlement, and a steady flow of free settlers poured into the hinterland. During the nineteenth century the formation of the Newcastle & Hunter River Steamship Company saw the establishment of regular steamship services from Morpeth and Newcastle with Sydney. The company had

8176-405: The like nature has ever before been successfully accomplished in similar circumstances. While many of the shots were taken of the buildings and streets others taken in the goldfields themselves required a great deal more effort. One of these, depicting the mines at Hawkins Hill, was reproduced in the Town and Country Journal on 18 May 1872, where the journalist, possibly Merlin himself, describes how

8288-474: The mariner as they reproduced the 'elevations, depressions, projections, &c, with an accuracy impossible in hand-drawings.' Merlin arrived back in Sydney on Christmas Eve, 'in time to hear the joyous Christmas bells ring out.' The new year initially seemed to be business as usual for the AAPC, with operators at work in Wagga Wagga and Gympie . But on 5 February he announced he was retiring from management of

8400-601: The middle of 1856 Merlin opened a 'beautiful little' theatre in High Street named the 'Queen's Theatre' which accommodated 300 people. The Following year, after the Maitland theatre burned to the ground, he moved to Newcastle where he worked as a manager, actor and painter of scenery for 'The Newcastle Theatre.' After a few shows, Merlin left Newcastle and, in May 1857, he applied for a license to exhibit panoramas in Sydney. A year later he

8512-466: The most respected studios in Australia. Between 1872 and 1873 he worked extensively documenting the goldfields and mining towns of New South Wales. In 1873, as an employee of Bernhardt Holtermann , he photographed Sydney and many rural New South Wales towns. He died on 27 September 1873. Merlin was born in Norfolk , England, the son of a chemist, Frederick Merlin, and his wife, Ann Harriet ( nee Beaufoy). He

8624-606: The mouth of the Hunter River , it is the predominant city within the Hunter Region . Famous for its coal , Newcastle is the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, exporting 143 million tonnes of coal in 2022. Beyond the city, the Hunter Region possesses large coal deposits. Geologically, the area is located in the central-eastern part of the Sydney Basin . Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by

8736-457: The nautical journey between Newcastle and Sydney. These ships continued in service until recent times. During World War II , Newcastle was an important industrial centre for the Australian war effort. In 1942, the Japanese planned to attack Sydney Harbour . On the early hours of 8 June, the Japanese submarine I-21 briefly shelled Newcastle. Among the areas hit within the city were dockyards,

8848-522: The new settlement. The new settlement, comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804 in three ships: HMS  Lady Nelson , the Resource and the James . The convicts were rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion . The link with Newcastle upon Tyne , England (its namesake) and also whence many of the 19th-century coal miners came, is still obvious in some of

8960-468: The north and east. Kyneton is on Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung country. The town has three main streets: Mollison Street, Piper Street and High Street. Piper Street has the oldest streetscape of these, and still has many of its original buildings. The railway station , about 86 kilometres (53 mi) from Melbourne on the Deniliquin railway line , is a terminus for two weekday peak-hour trains. The town

9072-530: The photograph was only possible after erecting a series of stages in the highest trees above the thousand foot deep gully. The camera and photographer then climbed up to the stage to photograph the mines nearly two miles away on the other side of the gully. By 1872 The Star of Hope Gold Mining Company was mining one of the richest veins of gold in Hawkins Hill and this had made its manager, Bernard Holtermann, very wealthy. Merlin and Holtermann's relationship came to

9184-679: The photographer responsible for the 1872 landscape views taken on the New South Wales goldfields and these photographs remain his most lasting legacy. By 4 May he had spent time at both Hill End and Tambaroora and had taken over 100 views some of which made their way to the Metropolitan Intercolonial Exhibition in Sydney. Less than a week later the Evening News was effusive in its praise of Merlin's images of Hawkins Hill and twenty large views, one dozen lesser views, and sixty smaller photographs of every scene of interest as well as

9296-515: The place-names—such as Jesmond , Hexham , Wickham , Wallsend and Gateshead . Morpeth, New South Wales is a similar distance north of Newcastle as Morpeth, Northumberland is north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Under Captain James Wallis , commandant from 1815 to 1818, the convicts' conditions improved, and a building boom began. Captain Wallis laid out the streets of the town, built the first church of

9408-434: The population. 88.2% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 0.7%, Macedonian 0.5%, Italian 0.4%, Greek 0.3% and Cantonese 0.3%. The most common responses for religion in Newcastle were No Religion 31.1%, Catholic 21.7% and Anglican 19.2%. Newcastle is often quoted as being the seventh-largest city in Australia . This is misleading as the area represented extends well beyond both

9520-442: The principle machinery at work. The whole series made up a valuable portrayal of the extensive mining operations at the locations. The Evening News also made it clear how unique Merlin's enterprise was, these splendid photographs, will, we hope, reimburse the spirited artist for the great difficulties undergone and expense he incurred is carrying out his object in so mountainous and broken a country. So far as we are aware nothing of

9632-559: The production titled The Storming of Delhi, from the Cashmere [sic.] Gate, presumably highlighting events from the Indian rebellion the year before. At the end of November 1858 Merlin sold the 'Indian Panorama'.</ref> While details of Merlin's general movements are sketchy, over the next few years but in 1863 he was back in England. In January Henry Beaufoy Merlin married Louisa Eleanor Foster at

9744-454: The purpose of carrying out photographic operations on an extensive scale. The company have an office in the city, but the headquarters of the landscape department is at Emerald Hill. The company commenced business on Monday. Initially, the office in Melbourne was located at 73 Little Collins Street but it seems Merlin opened a second office, at 4 Barrack Street, Sydney, in September 1869. Although

9856-413: The rate of commercial and retail occupation remains low while alternate suburban centres have become more important. The CBD itself is shifting to the west, towards the major urban renewal area known as "Honeysuckle". This renewal, to run for another 10 years, is a major part of arresting the shift of business and residents to the suburbs. Commercial renewal has been accompanied by cultural renaissance. There

9968-527: The region. Major Thomas Mitchell , New South Wales Surveyor-General crossed and named the Campaspe River near present-day Kyneton on his 1836 expedition. Charles Ebden was the first British colonist to occupy the region that includes the site of Kyneton. On 26 May 1837, he established a sheep station which he called Carlsruhe 6 km south of what is now Kyneton. Thomas Walker, a Sydney businessman, walked from Sydney to Melbourne in 1837, recording

10080-425: The remainder being amalgamated with Gisborne Shire, Newham & Woodend Shire and Romsey Shire to form Macedon Ranges Shire. Joseph Furphy (aka Bek Stanwix) attended Kyneton primary school in the mid-1850s. In November 1857, the humanitarian Caroline Chisholm moved her family to Kyneton, where her husband Archibald sat on the magistrates' bench and their two elder sons ran a store. Kyneton Mounted Rifle Corps

10192-528: The remaining seat ( Lake Macquarie ) is held by an independent . Greater Newcastle also includes five local government areas (LGAs): the City of Newcastle , the City of Lake Macquarie , the City of Cessnock , the City of Maitland and the Port Stephens Council . Newcastle High School , which was formed by the merger of three schools, traces its lineage to a secondary school section initially founded on

10304-456: The shortest notice', as this would become one of the features of American and Australasian Photographic Company. However it seems Merlin had dangerously extended his credit to set up the studio and without enough customers was, by May 1865, filing for insolvency. In particular, he pointed out how 'he had been deprived by the owner of the use of certain necessary implements he had on hire for the purpose of carrying on his business.' By December 1865

10416-412: The site of the present Christ Church Cathedral , erected the old gaol on the seashore, and began work on the breakwater which now joins Nobbys Head to the mainland. The quality of these first buildings was poor, and only the (much reinforced) breakwater survives. During this period, in 1816, the first school was built in Newcastle. Newcastle remained a penal settlement until 1822, when the settlement

10528-552: The steel works closed in 1999. Many of the remaining manufacturing industries have located themselves well away from the city itself. Newcastle has one of the oldest theatre districts in Australia. Victoria Theatre on Perkins Street is the oldest purpose-built theatre in the country. The theatre district that occupied the area around what is now the Hunter Street Mall vanished during the 1940s. The old city centre has seen some new apartments and hotels built in recent years, but

10640-471: The surrounding region. The town receives television from Mount Alexander , and is served by a community radio station, 100.7 Highlands FM , based in Woodend . Kyneton has a temperate mediterranean climate ( Csb ), with distinctly cold mornings in the summer. Cold fronts occur frequently throughout much of the year, and even in summer they are a fairly regular occurrence. Light snowfalls occur sporadically in

10752-739: The townsfolk taken in the AAPC studio set up in Tambaroora and the temporary one set up at Hill End. The earlier work of the AACP photographers, including Merlin, had focused on landscape views. While these sometimes-included people in the streets and outside their houses this feature became even more obvious in Merlin's goldfield photos. Here people seem to have been actively encouraged to pose in front of their cottage, mine or shop and, thus, most of these 1872 views include owners, families and managers posed in front of their buildings. Contemporary newspapers cite Merlin as

10864-624: The trip in a journal "A month in the Bush of Australia". Thomas Walker met Ebden in May 1837 on the journey south. In June 1838 the Waterloo Plains massacre of 8 - 23 Djadjawurrung people occurred on the newly established Barfold sheep run north of Kyneton. Unlike a majority of towns in the area, Kyneton predates the separation of the Port Phillip District from the Colony of New South Wales and

10976-580: The west of the town on the banks of the Campaspe River. Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Hurry (1868-1951), Commander of the 38th Battalion AIF in France in 1918, was born and died in Kyneton. He was the Member for Bendigo in the Commonwealth Parliament from 1922 until 1929. The Kyneton Courthouse tried Ned Kelly in 1870 for robbery under arms. This courthouse has since continued to function, although only as

11088-533: The years before they struck gold. In November, he photographed the cakes of pure gold made from crushing the huge piece of reef gold. By the end of December, Holtermann had left the Hill End to set himself up in his new home on the North Shore of Sydney. It was also around this time that Merlin seems to have inspired Holtermann to start a new project. On 1 January 1873 a number of advertisements appeared in papers across

11200-450: Was 1.8 °C (35.2 °F) on 27 July 1986. East coast lows also impact Newcastle, sometimes delivering winds well above 100 km/h (62 mph) and torrential rainfall, usually lasting a couple of days. The east coast low in May 1974, the 2007 New South Wales storms and April 2015 are extreme examples of this type of weather. The metropolitan area of Newcastle is the second-most-populous area in New South Wales to Sydney . What

11312-528: Was 42.5 °C (108.5 °F) on 18 January 2013 at the Nobbys Head weather station. Winters are generally mild with drier conditions than summer on average. Cold fronts affect the area and sometimes bring strong westerly winds behind them, but due to the foehn effect they generally provide clear conditions as the region lies leeward of the Great Dividing Range . The lowest recorded temperature

11424-466: Was again attempted in 1804, as a place of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. The settlement was named Coal River, also Kingstown and then renamed Newcastle, after the English city . The name first appeared by the commission issued by Governor King on 15 March 1804 to Lieutenant Charles Menzies of the marine detachment on HMS  Calcutta , then at Port Jackson , appointing him superintendent of

11536-541: Was at the El Dorado Goldfields where he photographed the turning of the sod for the Devon Company's first mine shaft. By February 1870 he was in New South Wales visiting Yass where he made good on his advertised promises to photograph every house. Not only were the pictures done rapidly but they were also done with, with more than usual excellence. Although the photographs were for sale at the time they were taken

11648-663: Was baptised in Wells-next-the-Sea in March 1830. Merlin and his mother arrived in Sydney from London on 8 December 1848. In 1851 Ann Harriet married Henry John Forster. The Sydney Morning Herald records that the bride's name was Anne Harriett Murlin, daughter of Benjamin Beaufoy. After his mother's marriage to Foster, Merlin took to using a number of different names before finally settling on Beaufoy Merlin, leading to some confusion around his early history. In May 1853, Henry Murlin took out

11760-556: Was completed at considerable expense and advertised instantaneous portraits, landscape and stereoscopic views, enlargements from carte de visites in crayon and in oil as well as an operating room, 'constructed on the principle recently designed by Mr Matheson of the Crystal Palace , and until the present occasion, never introduced to this colony. Importantly, Merlin was already advertising his services to take photographs of public buildings and private residences, 'at moderate terms and on

11872-524: Was formed in 1859, as one of the volunteer brigades set up when Britain was involved in wars in Afghanistan, Crimea and India. The Kyneton Mounted Rifle Corps was among the earliest in the colony of Victoria . The corps was later amalgamated in the 1880s to form the Victorian Mounted Rifles. Although the individual volunteer units had been disbanded by Federation (1901), many members became part of

11984-495: Was money to be made taking landscape and architectural views but the failure of his studio in Kyneton and his prior experience as a travelling showman seems to have encouraged him to set up a different kind of photographic business. On 21 June 1869, he formed the American and Australasian [sometimes recorded as Australian] Photographic Company (AAPC). A company called the American and Australian Photographic Company has been formed, for

12096-753: Was noted by those that saw the early examples produced by Merlin. One reason for the coverage in the news may have been due to a deputation of the New South Wales Commissioners for the International Exhibition, who were meeting with the Colonial Secretary to discuss setting up a permanent exhibition building in London. This proposal fell through, even though it was potentially a good fit for Holtermann's Exposition collection. Being of German origin, Holtermann may have been looking to display at

12208-432: Was opened up to farming. As a penal colony, the military rule was harsh, especially at Limeburners' Bay, on the inner side of Stockton peninsula. There, convicts were sent to burn oyster shells for making lime. Military rule in Newcastle ended in 1823. Prisoner numbers were reduced to 100 (most of these were employed on the building of the breakwater), and the remaining 900 were sent to Port Macquarie . After removal of

12320-476: Was possible for Merlin to lodge one here in Australia. Merlin's consortium was the first to successfully perform the trick for the theatre here in Australia and the first play they chose was a popular drama entitled The Castle Spectre . It was well received according to contemporary accounts. In late September he was presenting 'The Ghost' in Castlemaine, Victoria , but with no theatrical accompaniment. Instead,

12432-513: Was still in Sydney and in June 1858, he opened a new exhibition at the Lyceum Theatre, Sydney. Merlin's Indian panorama, painted by himself and a Mr. Guy, seems to have involved a series of scrolling panoramic scenes and projections over which a narrator would recount tales, offer scientific snippets, sing songs and offer humorous vignettes. Within a few weeks of its, opening Merlin added a new scene to

12544-549: Was subsequently titled the Holtermann collection in honour of Bernhardt Holtermann , who had financed the enterprise of taking the photographs. After Merlin's death his wife and children returned to England. Merlin's mother found herself in financial distress following his death, and funds were collected to assist her. Merlin's lasting legacy is the Holtermann Collection . As Keast Burke put it "Australia must forever owe

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