16 In A Box

“I am not guilty of the crime with which I was charged, and I told the judge so, but he would not believe me. May the Lord have mercy on our souls. Goodbye all.” - were the last words muttered on this earth by Charles Hines before the hangman, Robert  'Nosey Bob' Howard, pulled the bolt securing the trapdoor at Maitland Gaol May 21st 1897 at 9.07am, making Charles Hines the last man hanged at Maitland Gaol.

I could think of no better place to visit on a cold blustery June weekend than a mid 19th century penal establishment, so armed with my compact Sanyo S1275 camera, rugged up against the biting winds, I ventured through the gates of Maitland Gaol, entering into a world of confinement, razor wire, barred windows and surveillance.


The Maitland Gaol, which is actually situated in East Maitland (at the time the old Government/Administrative part of the Maitland district), along with Court House, sits along the grand axis of the Sir Thomas Mitchell town plan which was drawn up in 1829. The foundation stone was laid in 1844 and the reception of the first prisoners occurred in December 1848 (although some records indicate that this didn't happen until 1st January 1849). The first stage of the prison was designed by the NSW Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, which makes Maitland Gaol the only remaining "Inspector's Gaols" and it is also the oldest substantially intact prison in NSW


The prison was constructed using local sandstone from quarries at Morpeth and Farley, with Messrs. Brodie & Craig awarded the contract (Maitland Mercury 11/3/1846). The cost of the first stage of construction is hard to ascertain, however it would seem that the initial contract cost £2,500 and was awarded  in 1846 (Maitland Mercury 2/9/1846), down from an initial estimated cost of construction of £6,327 (Sydney Gazette 19/6/1841) .      


The second stage of construction (1861 - 1887), which included the 3 storey 'B' Block and the  East Wing or 'C' Block (commenced in 1883) was designed by James Barnet, who was also responsible for the design of a lot of the regions Post Offices, including East Maitland, West Maitland (Maitland), Lambton and Singleton. 


In 1896 the prison also became listed as one of the Colony's principle prison for women inmates and they were housed in 'C' Block. 


It is a truly terrifying image as you wander around the site and note the harsh conditions that greeted all the inmates that were transported through the massive main gates. 


In 1972 the gaol was upgraded (electricty was added to 'B' Block around this time!) and from 1977 it became a Maximum Security institution, which eventually housed some of NSW's most notorious criminals including Darcy Dugan, Ray Denning, Ivan Milat, Neddy Smith, the Anita Cobby and Janine Balding murderers. 


The most chilling section, besides the Gallows (located at the front gate), is the clinical high security 5 Wing, which  was opened in 1993 to house the states worst prisoners and would have to be the most soul destroying part of the tour, with its segregation, the use of stainless steel and minimal human contact makes it  truly awful experience for casual observers And we were only there for 10mins, not 10 years! 5 Wing had all the charm of a dog pound and the ambiance of a morgue and although the other cell blocks were constructed in the 19th century, I would prefer to spend time in the notorious 'B' Block than be confined to the odious 5 Wing.           


The Maitland Gaol continued as a fully functioning prison up until its closure in 1998, then after 150 years of service it ceased its function as a prison as the cost of maintaining and securing a 19th century prison close to a heavily populated area was becoming prohibitive, so without fanfare the prisoners were transferred to other prisons in the system. The prison was then handed over to the community, which besides providing tourists a real insight into the history NSW's penal system, the prison also caters for a variety of events from Laser Skirmish to theatre groups and  ghost tours. 


If you do intend to visit Maitland Gaol, try and do the tour with a guide (self guided tours are available) for it is the stories that add real depth to the tour. Our guide was Peter Fraser, an ex-inmate, who was quite authentic in his descriptions of the day to day existence of prisoners at Maitland Gaol during latter part of the prisons life and his recollections of those days were enough to convince me that prison is not the place for me!


As for the '16 In A Box'  title for this post, well 16 prisoners were hanged in the prison and their mortal remains left in a box ... however it would seem that some of the departed souls decided to 'hang' around a bit longer!         
           

I'd like to thank the staff at Maitland Gaol, the online resources of the National Library of Australia & the NSW Office of Heritage and Environment for their assistance in my research for this blog. 

Living the steam dream

The first signs are quite evident in the cool autumn morning, it starts with the unmistakable sound of 'choof, choof, choof', then in the distance the first clouds of steam and smoke gather over the Main Northern Line, which can only mean one thing .... the Hunter Valley Steamfest is upon us once again.

Sooty

Although not generally known, the Hunter Valley region was virtually built on the ribbons of steel, which finally reached Maitland in 1880 (or West Maitland as it was known until 1949). This enabled local produce to be taken directly to the important Sydney markets without having to rely on the vagaries of river transport and the cost associated with the multiple handling of goods. For over 100 years steam trains were a familiar sight on the tracks around the Hunter Valley, with the last steam engine ceasing operations on the South Maitland Railway (SMR) in 1983, which makes the SMR the 2nd last railway to use steam haulage in Australia.

36 Class locomotive

The Hunter Valley Steamfest just isn't about trains, a significant focus is also on the various steam engines that played a huge part economic development of the area. The bigger traction engine were used extensively in the farming, forestry and road construction industries, but also there were multiple uses for smaller steam engines to power generators, water pumps, shearing rigs and almost anything else that required a stable power source.

So this year I decided that I would attend this wonderful Hunter Valley festival for the first time and so arming myself with Canon 400D, I headed off to Warabrook railway to catch the local train to Maitland. Now the Steamfest is unique in that steam trains operate continually throughout the weekend and so even as I waited for my local train, one of the historic steam trains passed through, the beautifully restored 1902 built C-32 class 'Hunter'  No. 3265 locomotive. The 3265 still holds a special place in the hearts of Hunter train buffs, as it is last of the 32 class locomotives still operational and still carries the Hunter nameplate.




Once at the rally grounds there were so many excellent examples of steam propulsion it is nearly impossible to know where to begin to describe the displays. However, what I'll do is give a very short overview of just some of the examples of a technology that once dominated the landscape of 20th century Australia.

McLaren No . 1170

The J & H. McLaren No.1170 - This Traction Engine or 'road locomotive' as they were commonly known), is a great example of the type of equipment that would have been found working around the Hunter region around the start of the 1900's. Typically they were single cylinder of around 7 - 8 horse power capacity and would have been in great demand around harvest and  shearing time.

Christina

Christina - Unlike the McLaren, this John Fowler & Sons model, plate No. 16770 appears to had a life in the road construction industry as a road roller. Although very similar to the J & H. McLaren Traction Engine models the road rollers had a wider front track and  smooth rear wheels for compacting the road surface. Both factories were located in the English town of Leeds and the two competing factories even shared a common boundary. At the height of their manufacturing heyday the John Fowler Steam Plough Works occupied a 15 acre site and employed over 2,500 workers.


Sooty - Another John Fowler & Sons road locomotive, built in Traction Engine configuration, plate designation No. 16605 . 

Aveling & Porter Type D

The Aveling & Porter Type D Road Roller - This is great example of the road rollers that were imported into Australia in their 1,000's during the 1920's as road construction became a priority as more and more vehicles began using the roads after World War One and demand was high for better construction techniques. A lot of these 8 ton, 6 horse power road rollers were imported by Noyce Brothers in Sydney and were sent throughout the state. The cost of one of these machines was apparently around £1321, or around $360,000 today! 

Hazel

Hazel - This is a very rare example of a Traction Engine built by Wm. Allchin of Northhampton in England. The Allchin plant was very small when compared to others of the period and they only produced around 220 machines by the time they stopped building in 1925. Out of the 220 machines produced today it is believed that there are only 20 left in existence and of these 17 are in England, with three believed to be in Australia ... Hazel being one of them.

Marshall Traction Engine

1905 6 horse power Marshall, Sons & Co Traction Engine - Marshall, Sons & Co, located in Gainsborough, England   was one of Englands largest agricultural machinery manufacturer and were one of the early adopters of the internal combustion engines for tractors, which ironically sounded the death knell for steam operated tractors.

1920's Super Sentinel

1920's Super Sentinel Steam Waggon -  At least 100 Sentinel Steam Waggons were imported into Australia between 1921 to 1927 from the Shrewsbury factory in England and there is believed to be only 15 examples of these unique vehicles still surviving today. These odd looking trucks found a niche in our early motoring history, being able to haul over 6 tons and had an achievable top speed of around 20kph from their two cylinder engines, making them more powerful than the horse drawn drays of the time. However, by the 1930's they had all but disappeared off our roads as the petrol engine began to be more readily available to the transport industry. The slow, cumbersome Sentinels were no match for the newer technology and 'choof, choofed' into automotive history.

Vernier Tractor

While it is nostalgic to look back on the age of steam as representative of a gentler era, it must be remembered that this form of propulsion was dirty, high maintenance and very inefficient. An example of this were the early steam wagons that used around 200 kilos of coke, 150 litres of water and had an operational time of around 3 hours which made them very energy inefficient. Also, the steam trains were filthy, smelly and had a bad habit of setting fire to the Australian bush from their embers.


So well it may have been a bit of fun to have a tactile engagement with the past, but I think the age of steam has past and is best left to the industrial romantics. 

Doin' Lunch

When did lunch time become so complicated in our busy, fast paced modern lives?


These days lunch times seem to be a period when it has to filled with some kind activity, such as power walking, bike riding, checking emails, updating Facebook, surfing the net ... whew, the list just goes on. Even when do get around to 'doing' lunch, it seems we have to do it with someone else, where we can unload the burdens of our private lives and our frustrations of work upon some other hapless soul, while gorging on some overprice takeaway trash.


We seem to fill this midday void with anything rather than just getting some quiet contemplation and a chance to unwind, to restore our restless soul.


Over the past few weeks I have been lucky enough to be having my meal break in the Maitland area and once again I decided to take advantage of the wonderful Walka Water Works picnic grounds and a secluded spot at Melville Ford crossing on the Hunter River. This may sound strange, but thanks to shift work I actually have my lunch between 9 - 10am and so, without sounding selfish, it does mean that my lunch is usually taken when there aren't a lot of people around to disturb my bit of downtime during this magic time of the day.


During my lunch lately at Walka Water Works I have been visited by a very inquisitive Magpie who seems to taken quite a shine to my lunchtime meals, coming down to visit as soon as I pull up and then waits for me to give him a few nuts (is that healthy for birds? ... whatever), after that he then just takes off. This regular occurrence has taken place over the past few months and even though I don't visit that area every day (it was over a week between visits this time), or at the same time, my new found lunch mate flies down for his visit no matter what. Not only do I have my Magpie mate, there are also the cows lowing in the paddocks, a flock of quarrelsome Cockatoos and a large mob of Kangaroos that regularly graze in the area, making my lunch breaks something special.

Sure beats sitting in a sterile McDonalds fighting the cappuccino sipping pensioners for the last soggy Newcastle Herald!    

The Lost Post Offices of Australia - East Maitland (2323)

In August 1971 the No.1 song on radio station 2HD was 'Eagle Rock' by local Australian group Daddy Cool and GMH had just released the iconic HQ Holden . If you were driving down Lawes Street East Maitland in your new HQ, listening to Daddy Cool on the AM radio you may have witnessed the passing of an era when Australia Post  (actually it was still called the PMG then) opened its brand new, purpose built East Maitland Post Office and left its stately 95 year old Day Street premises.

East Maitland has a long history which can be traced back to 1829 when the  NSW Colonial Government Surveyor, General Mitchell, laid out town to serve as the 'Government' centre for the Maitland area. Since the area was separated by Wallis Creek the towns quickly became known as East and West Maitland. West Maitland had a longer history, first settled in the 1820's and it was also the site of the first Post Office in the region. The mail was originally was transported to Sydney via Newcastle, Morpeth and Raymond Terrace utilising the main transportation corridor, the river system. However, it was also very prone to flooding, due to its proximity to the Hunter River and so it was overlooked in favour of East Maitland as the 'new' administrative centre.  

It wasn't long after East Maitland began, that there were calls for its own Post Office to be established so locals wouldn't have to cross Wallis Creek to access postal services and they would not have to deal with the vagaries of a sometimes irregular mail delivery. However these calls fell on deaf ears in Sydney Town.

It wasn't until the 1st May1840 that the Postmaster General, James Raymond decided to co-locate the East Maitland Post Office with the Court House in Melbourne Street and use the Clerk of the Magistrate Court as the postmaster. This was a quite common practice in the early days of the colony, as such arrangements were already in place in West Maitland and Campbelltown. When the Court House moved in 1860, it appears that the Post Office stayed in the Melbourne Street premises and continued operations.

In the 1870's  the local East Maitland council made successful representations to the NSW Postmaster General for the establishment of a purpose built Post Office and with that James Barnet was commissioned to do the architectural work, with costs not to exceed £1,000. This commenced a great deal of anguish for the local council who were insisting that the Postmaster General select a site in Melbourne Street and were horrified when the Day Street site was selected as the preferred option. Day Street was selected due to it's proximity to the Great Northern Railway and the fact that the mail trains were able to stop at the newly constructed East Maitland Railway Station and Parcel Office. To be able to deliver all the mail for the whole district, including West Maitland, from Day Street, must have been seen as the most logical and prudent choice by the Postmaster General at the time . This didn't pacify the local council, as reports from the East Maitland Council meetings regularly contained the dismay of the local councillors in the selection of the Day Street site (as reported in the Maitland Mercury newspaper). Also when the plans were  revealed comments such as;

 "There is nothing in the building which entitles it to much credit in the score of architectural beauty, to which indeed it makes no pretensions, not being in Sydney. A country town wants no ornament, of course" - Maitland Mercury 18th March 1875

Despite all the internal council wrangling, in 1876 the East Maitland Post Office was finally opened for business. Following James Barnet's well used formula for such buildings, of being a cement rendered brick construction in the favoured Victorian Italianate 2 storey style. However, it did miss out on the usual slate roof and instead was constructed with a corrugated iron roof. What is also so special about this wonderful building is that even today , it still retains the original horse stables, unique sandstone front veranda and hitching rails.

This building was another property that was destined to never celebrate its centenary with Australia Post as it ceased to operate as a Post Office on the 3rd August 1971 and then became a recreation and meeting room for the Maitland branch of the Australian Postal Institute. On the 12th May 1986 Australia Post notified that the building was to be sold off and a piece of Australia Post history once again fell into private hands.

Although the Day Street site is a wonderful building, it did have major drawbacks such as high maintenance costs and isolation, especially when the commercial centre had moved to the less flood prone area of Lawes Street, leaving the old Post Office hanging around like the proverbial wallflower at the school dance ... 

"Now listen,

Oh we're steppin' out.

I'm will turn around,

Gonna turn around once and we'll do the Eagle Rock".

So if you are ever in East Maitland, take the drive down Day St and give the old girl a tip of the hat. I'm sure she'll appreciate it. 

P.S. This year also celebrates 170 years of continuous postal operations in East Maitland, also quite a proud achievement for Australia Post. 
P.S.S. The former jewel in the crown of East Maitland now, as of 2010, has a new owner, The Spastic Centre. The building has been thoroughly renovated and tastefully redecorated, both inside and out, highlighting the uniqueness of James Barnett's architectural style.  
I'd like to thank the staff at Maitland Library for their help in providing the resources to compile this article and to the State Library of NSW for the use of their historical photographs.

    

Keeping The Tradition

It is not surprising that sometimes when you look at your job you think, 'this job really sucks!', without looking past the present. Now this isn't uncommon and I think we tend to look at what is happening in our own bit of the cosmos as a benchmark and never take the the time to really look back at times past.

I have been looking into my working past quite a fair bit during my research into the 'The Lost Post Offices of Australia' series and I'm finding that there is very little that is new in my work as an Australia Post driver. We still have to contend with vagaries of the weather, the mishaps on our journey, irate customers and dare I say it, ineffective management.


Now my research isn't just going back a couple of years, or even a couple of decades, but as far back as the 1830's! The stories reflect how tough it must have been in those pioneering times with roads impassable, the stoic coach horse dying from exhaustion and the mailman sleeping on the side of roads until the tracks dried out sufficiently, sometimes for up to sixteen days (as was the case in 1852) before they could complete their journey.


So once again I followed I track that I have travelled before, this time armed with my new take anywhere friend , the Sanyo S1275 camera and followed the back tracks from Branxton to Maitland, passing through sleepy Hunter Valley localities such as Windemere, Gosforth and Luskintyre. This time I looked at the landscape through the eyes of not someone who was driving a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, but as someone who had to traverse the area on horseback.


It was a stunning vista, low early morning cloud, lush rolling fields and babbling brooks to visually take your breath away with each new turn of the corner. It wasn't until I came to a Hunter River crossing called Melville Ford, that the realities of how harsh this stunning area can be, for at Melville Ford there are the battered remains of two former bridges, each standing as a silent testament to how ferocious this river can be when in flood.      


Yes, I'll continue to whine about how tough work is, however I know that I won't be sitting at Melville Ford Bridge for 16 days watching my horse die from starvation.


Sort of brings our working life back into perspective.

East is east & west is west, but I reckon both sides of Maitland are BEST!

Located about 30klms away from Newcastle, nestled alongside the Hunter River, is the picturesque historical town of Maitland. 

Maitland is a river town & prior to motor vehicles & trains, the quickest way to 

get produce to Sydney was using the Hunter River via Morpeth & Newcastle. So Maitland quickly grew into a large transportation hub .

Actually there are two Maitlands, East Maitland & West Maitland (ok, 4 if you include Maitland, the area situated around the Courthouse & South Maitland, near the showgrounds!). East Maitland was the preserve of the rich, mainly because the town was built higher than its riverbank cousin to the west. As a consequence while most of the commerce was gathered around the riverbank, the toffs preferred to live where their feet would stay a tad dryer than the plebs who plied their trades around the wharves.

The architecture is absolutely stunning & this is exemplified by the Post Offices. Maitland PO (situated in Maitland West) is one of the few Australia Post properties whose soul hasn't been sold to become a restaurant or solicitors office, but still enjoys its original purpose, a functioning PO. However, East Maitland was sold off years ago & was replaced by a 'modern' soulless edifice in High St., which I suppose is better than the current fashion of putting LPO's in shopping centres.

Where Flag Now Doesn't Fly

There is a building down by the railway track,

Where eyes no longer pry,

It's now a private residence,

Where the flag now doesn't fly.

There is a building down in main street,

Where the solicitors now all lie,

It's now a place of commerce,

Where the flag now doesn't fly.

There is a building in the middle of town,

Where the food comes from a

 deep fry,

It's now downmarket restaurant,

Where the flag now doesn't fly.

There are a  still a few buildings left,

& I hope that they never die,

They are the local Post Office,

Where our Australian flag 

... still continues to fly.