Out of the ordinary. Exhibition Booklet

CATALOGUE

MAITLAND’S SURPRISING HISTORY

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By Cynthia Hunter

A project of the Maitland City Heritage Group

Out of the Ordinary, Maitland’s Surprising History Look Who’s Talking - Local History

OUT OF THE ORDINARY MAITLAND’S SURPRISING HISTORY

By Cynthia Hunter Edited by Elisabeth Smark and Bob Beale Out of the Ordinary, Maitland’s Surprising History is the eighth book produced by the Maitland City Heritage Group. The book series aims to highlight lesser known aspects of the City’s history and heritage.

Other publications in the series produced since 1999 include Bourke Street, Maitland; Horseshoe Bend, Maitland; Hay Barns and Dairy Buildings of Maitland; Time Gentleman Please, Maitland’s Hotels Past and Present; Out of the Closet, Maitland’s Water Stories; Hearths and Homes, 19 Decades of Residential Design; and Bound for Wallis Plains, Maitland’s Convict Settlers.

Out of the Ordinary can be purchased from local bookshops and Council outlets for $25.

CAST IRON SURVIVORS For more than 100 years, a red bell-style letterbox stood outside the offices of the Maitland Mercury in High Street, until in 1986 it was demolished in a collision between a truck and a car. When Australia Post announced it would not be replaced, more than 300 people signed a petition in protest.

Eventually one was installed, but of a modern design.

A letter box similar to the broken one stands at the corner of Melbourne Street and the New England Highway. Whether this is its original position is not clear, but it is no longer used for mail. During the 1955 flood Dixon Park’s brand new surf boat was wrecked on this box. The boat hadn’t even been paid for but it was said the police had a whip around and paid for it!

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

ILL – FATED PORTRAIT In late 1856 friends of Edward Charles Close – the first settler of Morpeth and by then a leading and respected citizen – persuaded him to sit for a portrait they planned to present to Maitland Hospital in his honour.

It was, however, not well received, with many thinking at the time that the work ‘scarcely does him justice’. It appears that it did not arrive at the hospital for some time, and was eventually passed to the Newcastle Regional Library, where it remains today.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

FURNITURE AND FUNERALS Essential to Maitland’s growth and vital to town planning in the mid-1800’s, were the narrow laneways between buildings which allowed everyone access to the Hunter River – for water, waste management and transport.

In the early years all the shops fronting the south side of High Street were also serviced by a rear laneway. Coffin Lane is an example which provides a memory of the manufacture of coffins which were built, and varnished and placed outside workshops to dry, hence the name’ Coffin Lane’.

Photograph courtesy of Cynthia Hunter

DEATH’S DEADLINE MISSED The Morpeth Times and Hunter Valley Representative newspaper was published only briefly in the late 19th century and only a few issues are extant. However, on Monday 13 October 1884, it carried an intriguing report:

AN ECCENTRIC MAN In the Roman Catholic cemetery, Morpeth, may be seen a tombstone upon which is inscribed the name, birthplace, etc of the supposed occupant of the grave, but who is in life at the time of writing, and likely to be until the year 1888, in which year, according to the stone, the grave will claim it’s tenant’.

The inscription on the stone stated: In Memory of Patrick Griffin Native of County Clare Ireland 1888 Patrick Griffin lived for an additional four years to the lifespan he had allotted to himself and even today, no alteration or addition has been made to the date on this inscription.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

GEMS OF INDUSTRIAL VICTORIANA The Walka Water Works, with its striking chimney, draws the eye from great distances all around. Ornate polychrome brickwork adds to its commanding presence in a lakeside and parkland setting on Maitland’s outskirts.

What makes it so remarkable and interesting today? Firstly, the site is one of the largest and most intact 19th century industrial complexes in the Hunter Region. Secondly, the whole building is visually outstanding and technically exceptional, representing the pinnacle of industrial Victorian Italianate architecture.

Photographs courtesy of Bob Beale

THE CURIOUS GRIFFINS OF MORPETH HOUSE – OR ARE THEY SPHINXES? In November 1849 Edward Close’s home Closebourne House and 90 acres of land were conveyed to newly appointed Bishop William Tyrell who took the property as headquarters of the Diocese of Newcastle.

At that time, Close built a new family residence ‘Morpeth House’, a little west of Closebourne House.

The entrance to Morpeth House was located in one of the two side wings which was unusual. This was made doubly so by the entry stairs decorated with a curious pair of griffins, or are they sphinxes? It is a mystery how Close, or his descendants came by the curious creatures. They may be the only ones in the Hunter Valley.

Photograph courtesy of Cynthia Hunter

COURTHOUSE TREASURES Walter Vernon, the NSW government architect, designed and supervised the building of the Maitland Courthouse in 1895.

A rumoured dispute with the builders is held responsible for the fact that the courthouse did not have a clock in its tower until about 75 years later. The importance of the clock is, however, overshadowed by other embellishments such as the glorious colonial cedar and Kauri pine vaulted ceiling of the courthouse.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

TIMELY VICTORY Edward Close of Closebourne, the founder and benefactor of Morpeth, offered to provide a site for a courthouse for the town if the government would provide a building. Some time passed before this offer was taken up, and tenders were first called to commence construction in 1861.

The community assembled a petition to present to the Minister for Works, praying that a public clock should be placed in the building. Five years later, the Minster payed a visit and grudgingly advised that a clock would soon be installed.

He did not endear himself to the locals when he said he could not see why the government should go to the expense of supplying a public clock when he noticed every gentleman present had his own fob watch.

HISTORIC INMATE ART PRESERVED Through most of its 150 years of operation, Maitland Gaol had a reputation for extremely harsh conditions. This was particularly so in the 19th century, in keeping with the gaol’s status as a place of execution.

In the 20th century, these conditions led to unrest and occasionally to riots. The upheavals of riots in the 1970’s forced some changes in government thinking – education courses, including art, were introduced to help foster rehabilitation. In Maitland Gaol that led to the painting of some remarkable murals by inmates that have since been preserved because of their important part of that history.

The largest, a mural covering the southern wall of the former saddler building by Ricky Robinson, features a horseman chasing brumbies over an expansive outback landscape.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

LANDMARK OF A VIBRANT COMMUNITY From the first days of European settlement there were Jewish émigrés in the colony, and the first in Maitland settled from about 1830. The community quickly grew and their enterprises flourished, bringing great vibrancy to community life in general.

Some of the fine buildings that were erected by individual traders and the community survive today. The most distinctive and familiar is the former Maitland Synagogue, on the corner of Church Street and Ken Tubman Drive, alongside Woolworths supermarket.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

RAVISHING ROCKS, FABULOUS FOSSILS A hidden and mysterious world lies far beneath the streets of Maitland and, indeed, far beneath the rich alluvial soils carried there by the Hunter River.

The many fine old buildings of the city allow us to glimpse a geological story that goes back hundreds of millions of years when the Hunter Region was buried by ancient seas or flooded by giant rivers.

Indeed, without its prehistoric rock layers up to 4km thick and dating back to the Permian period, Maitland’s historic cityscape might look quite different. One source of special stone, for example is the Ravensfield quarry at Farley. There, during a brief but important window of time, about 280 million years ago, a layer of very finely textured sandstone was laid down on a massive river delta.

Well known stonemason, Thomas Browne used stone cut from the quarry to build some of the city’s loveliest buildings including the Cohen’s warehouse in High Street (now Centrelink), St Mary’s Church and decorative stone on the Maitland Courthouse and Maitland Railway Station.

Photographs courtesy of Bob Beale

SAILORS ROW Morpeth’s days as the region’s busiest and most important port ended more than a century ago, but curious reminders of its maritime past remain, such as remains of old wharves and other relics you will find at the Morpeth Museum.

Several sailor’s graves in Morpeth cemetery are among the most poignant. They form a row to the left of the lych gate and the inscriptions reveal the sailors buried here were aged 20 – 40 years.

Photograph courtesy of Bob Beale

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