Newcastle’s 7000 Years of Achievements Before The Commonwealth

Joseph Lycett – Corroboree at Newcastle c.1818 (Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales)

To co-incide with the spectacular Treasures of Newcastle from the Macquarie Era exhibition, currently on display at the Newcastle Art Gallery, the University’s Coal River Working Party has submitted a nomination for national recognition for Newcastle’s 7000 years of historic achievements to the Commonwealth of Australia.

Newcastle’s birthplace, the Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Doman have been nominated for inclusion in the National Heritage List, which is a record of places in Australia that have outstanding natural, Indigenous or historic heritage values for the nation.

Locations of Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain sites (Compiled by Mr Russell Rigby)

Nominating a place for the National Heritage List means identifying its national heritage values and providing supporting evidence.

The submission provides compelling evidence of  Newcastle’s history, spanning 7000 years of human habitation. It provides documentary evidence that Newcastle’s Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain is the site of:

- Australia’s first discoveries (1791 and 1796), first export (1799) and first profit (1801) of a natural resource (i.e. coal) in this country.

- Australia’s first full length autobiography and dictionary compiled by James Hardy Vaux in 1811-1814.

- First systematic study of an Aboriginal language anywhere in the country by Biraban, Chief of the Newcastle Tribe (now known as the Awabakal) and the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld and published in a series of works from 1826 to 1892. This is one example of the unique cultural relationship that is mirrored here between Aboriginal and Colonial peoples.

- Australia’s “Cultural Capital” during the Macquarie era from 1810 to 1821 that led to the creation of artistic objects and works of world significance such as the Macquarie Chest, Wallis Album, Skottowe manuscript, notable engravings and paintings.

- Australia’s first environmental action in 1853-1854 on behalf of a community to protect a natural landform (Nobbys)

- Australia’s first Industrial School for Girls, and later, the first hospital for “Imbeciles and idiots”.

- The important transitions in Australia’s journey to nationhood; from government industry to private enterprise, from convict to free labour, from punishment to profit, from a natural to a human-fashioned landscape. The landscape tells these stories in a dramatic fashion; through its changing landforms shaped by the demands of industry, through its archaeological remains intact and in situ, and through the continued and inescapable presence of a bustling working harbour.

The full submission can be downloaded here:

NATIONAL NOMINATION FOR NEWCASTLE’S COAL RIVER (MULUBINBA) AND GOVERNMENT DOMAIN (3.3MB PDF FILE)

Cover of Treasures Exhibition Catalogue

We also urge all Novocastrians to also visit the current exhibition at the Newcastle Art Gallery that contains many of Newcastle’s cultural treasures, some of which have not been back here since they were created over 195 years ago. They are not only of national significance, but of international significance, and it is important that all Novocastrians get a chance to see them, even those who have never ventured into a gallery before.

A list of activities can be accessed here:

http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/nag/exhibitions/present/artist/treasures_of_newcastle

The Exhibition Catalogue can be downloaded from here:

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2013/treasures_newcastle/docs/treasures_newcastle_catalogue.pdf

or here:

TREASURES OF NEWCASTLE FROM THE MACQUARIE ERA CATALOGUE (5 MB PDF FILE)

We urge all Novocastrians past and present to support this nomination for Newcastle. We believe recognition for Newcastle’s place in the Australian story needs to be acknowledged and restored. This is long overdue.

I wish to thank my Coal River Working Party colleagues, especially Ann Hardy, Dr Brian Walsh, Russell Rigby, Kerrie Brauer, and Professor Erik Eklund (Monash University) and Dr David Roberts (University of New England) for their support and work for this nomination.

We hope that our efforts bear fruit.

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist and Chair, Coal River Working Party

National Nomination for Newcastle 2012

Letter from A/Director Heritage Reform and Shipwrecks dated 4 July 2012

The letter above was received this morning from Mr Peter Graham A/Director Heritage Reform and Shipwrecks dated 4 July 2012, and incorrectly addressed to “Dr Erik Eklund” notifying him that the Australian Heritage Council did not consider Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain Newcastle a priority for assessment in 2012-2013 for inclusion on the National Heritage List.  Dr Eklund has not been Chair of the Coal River Working Party since the end of 2007, when he left Newcastle to take up a Professorship at Monash University.

This is our third attempt, and we find it extremely disappointing that we have not been able to convince the Australian Government to date that Newcastle is a place of historical and cultural significance to this nation.

On behalf of the University’s Coal River Working Party, I would like to thank our historians and researchers, especially Ann Hardy for her efforts in preparing our Nomination and for those in the wider community that support them. Our members are very generous in volunteering their time to achieve recognition for our city and region and it is a great honour to work with such people.

Our National Nomination 2012 can be read and downloaded here:
http://coalriver.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/national-nomination-for-newcastle-2012/

Kind Regards,
Gionni Di Gravio
Chair, University’s Coal River Working Party

National Nomination for Newcastle 2012

A map of the area showing the two Precincts and the Convict Lumber Yard for National Heritage Listing

National Nomination – Coal River & Government Domain 2012
By Ann Hardy and Gionni Di Gravio (1.1MB PDF File)

The following cover letter with copy of the National Nomination for Newcastle 2012 was sent to:

Sharon Grierson MP,  Federal Member for Newcastle

Tim Owen MP, State Member for Newcastle

Cr. John Tate, Lord Mayor of Newcastle

 

‘Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain’ National nomination for the Commonwealth Heritage List

 

We are writing to inform you that the ‘Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain’ National nomination for the Commonwealth Heritage List was submitted by the University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party in February 2012 to the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

We believe that the ‘Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain’ is deserving of official National recognition because it was the site of Australia’s first discoveries of coal (1791 and 1796), the first export (1799), and first return (1801).

It has therefore played an important and unique role in launching the Nation’s economy, which has forged the economic, political and social evolution of Australia. It is truly a ‘Birthplace’ site in terms of how human collaborations in these early years created a distinctive social and political process that helped establish a more democratic society in Australia. This evolution from the harsh days of convict labour to a more civil society and the beginnings of private enterprise led to improved living and working conditions in Australia.

The nomination contains two Precincts: the Coal River Precinct (encompassing Nobbys, Macquarie Pier and Fort Scratchley) and Newcastle Government Domain (encompassing the James Fletcher Hospital site, Obelisk and King Edward Park). Also included is the Convict Lumber Yard, which lies in close proximity to both Precincts. These sites are indicative of the European formation of the settlement and its governance as a shared heritage.

Coal River (Mulubinba) and Government Domain is of outstanding National heritage significance because it is a place of ‘living history’, where Aboriginal and Colonial lifestyle is mirrored in the landscape. These two cultures reflect the early Aboriginal and European association with the place and their use of the land and how these cultures came together to tell a unique story. In Aboriginal Dreaming Nobbys (Whibayganba) was place of an imprisoned kangaroo, as was Newcastle (Mulubinba) a place for the incarceration of convicts. Newcastle was also the site of the first thorough and methodical study an Aboriginal language in the country, conducted by the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld with Biraban in 1824. Their work is still used to this day by linguists in the reconstruction of Aboriginal Languages across the Region.

Newcastle is the site of the earliest profitable coalmines in the Southern Hemisphere. According to the 1930 Royal Commission into the Coal Industry (p.50):

‘The discovery of good quality coal dates from the earliest period of white settlement in Australia… During early exploration of the coastal belt outcrops of coal were found near Newcastle in 1796 and at Coal Cliff, near Wollongong in the following year. The importance of the discovery was not overlooked at the time, although there was no knowledge then of the immense extent of these coal beds, which have been by far the most productive of all that have been discovered in Australia and have exercised a powerful influence upon the development of New South Wales.’

Coal Cliff proved unworkable, yet Newcastle (Coal River) proved to be the site of the first export of coal shipped to Bengal in 1799:

‘We have also some hopes that coal with which the country abounds will be of much Colonial advantage. A ship lately returned to Bengal loaded with coals, and it gave no small satisfaction to every person interested in the prosperity of the colony to see this first export of it; and I am hopeful from these advantages that New South Wales, however contemptible it may at present appear in the list of our colonies, may yet become an acquisition of value to the mother country.
- 1799, September 8.’ (Mr John Thomson to Captain Schanck, H.R.N.S.W., Vol. III, pp. 716 – 718)

Coal River was also the site of the first return (or profit) made in the fledgling colony of New South Wales, (2 pounds, 5 shillings) and was recorded by Governor King in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks in August 1801

‘The first cargo of coals brought from the Coal River in a Government vessel I exchanged with the master of the Cornwallis, who goes to Bengal from hence for iron, which he gave at 30 per cent. Profit for our coals at two pounds five shillings per chaldron. I believe this is the first return ever made from New South Wales.’ (Governor King to Sir Joseph Banks (Banks Papers.), H.R.N.S.W., Vol.IV, p. 359).

Newcastle on a cultural level was also the site of the first full length autobiography ever written in Australia, by James Hardy Vaux (1782 – c.1841) and his Vocabulary of the Flash Language the first dictionary ever compiled in Australia around the years 1811-1814, probably on the site of the Convict Lumber Yard. Newcastle’s artisans also created the Macquarie Chest, the most significant cultural artefact of the Colonial period.

We believe that Commonwealth Heritage recognition for Newcastle and the Hunter Region is long overdue. This is our third attempt at striving for National recognition for our city and region’s role in the making of this prosperous Nation.

Your support for this National nomination is crucial and greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist
Chair – Coal River Working Party
Cultural Collections
Level 2 Auchmuty Library
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308
Australia

Heritage Omission

'Heritage omission Convict grounds overlooked' by Jacqui Jones (NH 31 July 2010 p.7)

Editorial - Sentenced to Obscurity (Newcastle Herald 31 July 2010 p18)

See the online article here:

http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/newcastles-convict-heritage-snub/1900252.aspx

National Nomination Mark II

A National Nomination for the Coal River (Mulubinba) Cultural Landscape was prepared by Ann Hardy and her international team including Amir Rezapour Mogadam (Conservator), Dene Hawken (Awabakal Descendent), Doug Lithgow (President, Park and Playgrounds Movement Inc), Roslyn Kerr (Geologist), Barbara Heaton (Newcastle City Council) and Gionni Di Gravio (University Archivist and Chair) for the Coal River Working Party and sent to the Nominations Division of the Commonwealth Department of Environment, Heritage and the Arts on February 3rd 2009.

The documents can be downloaded here:

Hardy, Ann et al. National Nomination for the ‘Coal River (Mulubinba) Cultural Landscape’ (962KB PDF File) and related Appendix A (1.53MB PDF File) Appendix B (541KB PDF File) Appendix C (7.25MB PDF File) Appendix D (1.79MB PDF File)

We sincerely thank Ann Hardy for her diligent work in canvassing views, compiling and writing this new Nomination on behalf of the Coal River Working Party and the City of Newcastle.

We also appreciate the professional expertise of Amir Rezapour Moghadam. Amir is a qualified art conservator who has worked in the field since 2001 and has gained experience as a conservator at four world heritage sites,  including the limestone façades of Persepolis and even more sites of national heritage in cooperation with international teams from Germany, France, United States, and Italy. He has worked for the Iran Cultural Heritage and Truism Organization, Research Centre for Conservation of Cultural Relics (Iran), Parse- Pasargadae Research Foundation, Persepolis Museum and library of Parliament.

We are very fortunate to currently have Amir here in our Cultural Collections primarily working on our State Records and Norm Barney – Ralph Snowball Photographic Collections. His fresh insights and advice in the preparation of this Nomination have been greatly appreciated.