Newcastle Family History Society Podcasts

Arriving as free settlers with little wealth, the Woods rose through mining, hotels and brewing to become some of the Newcastle’s richest and most influential citizens. Their money built grand houses on the Hill, funded hospitals, schools and charities, and helped shape the city's civic life.

In episode one we left Molly Morgan, Joe Hunt, Irish Frank and the Anvil Creek household awaiting the arrival of the bushranger gang, Jacob’s Irish Brigade. Drawing on historical records and creative reconstruction, this episode imagines how Jacob’s Irish Brigade may have been received by Molly Morgan - on a frontier where survival depended on knowing when to speak, and when not to.

Jane Ison looks at the Presbyterian cemetery once situated beside Cottage Creek in Newcastle West.

Across the road from The Junction Public School in Newcastle once stood a small but mighty institution — a family-run pottery that shaped a community for more than a century. Marie Hughes tells the story of Hughes Potteries – A Family Concern.

In this creative non-fiction podcast, Narelle Austen explores the people, places, and forces behind bushranging in one of Australia’s earliest colonial regions - the Hunter Valley.

Jane Ison traces the history of St Andrew’s – its foundation, its people, and the painstaking research that has helped rediscover more than a thousand names once thought forgotten.

Jan Richards traces the life of her ancestor Hannah Williams whose fate was sealed by a single decision in London in 1828.

In our series, Memories of Newcastle, society member Lea Harris takes us back to the days of the Stockton Tweed Factory, a forgotten piece of our local history.