The world-renown Wyndham Estate label will live on but the once booming Dalwood winery will close to the public.
“We will remain committed to Wyndham Estate and to the legacy created by George Wyndham in the Hunter Valley and at this site.
“Whilst the Wyndham Estate site at Dalwood will be closed to the public, it will remain an important part of the Wyndham Estate history and we will continue to be present in the market with Hunter-based wines in the future.
From the Maitland Mercury report: Sound issues have marred recent events at Maitland Town Hall and council has earmarked state government money to fix the problem.
The government committed $2 million to council last September for town hall renovations, which included an upgrade for the hall’s public address system.
A Maitland City Council spokesman said they had called for tenders to complete improvements to the interior of the hall and work would begin in 2015.
This year marks the centenary of the First World War and a busy time for the Australian War Memorial. To stay up to date with what the Memorial is doing to commemorate this period we have created Coo-ee! The Centenary Gazette, a quarterly electronic newsletter.
Thank you to our readers - the first edition of Coo-ee! debuted with one of the highest number of readers for the Memorial's electronic newsletters.
Maitland Rugby Club will be able to illuminate its car park after an extra three lamps were earmarked for removal from the Maitland Heritage Mall.
Thirty-nine lamp posts were scheduled for removal as part of The Levee project mall upgrades and councillors allocated them to organisations and private residents in the community last night.
Cr Arch Humphrey said a mail sorting error meant that the rugby club’s application for 10 heritage-style lamp posts for its car park was overlooked, because the application was addressed: “To whom it may concern.”
From the Maitland Mercury report: Maitland mall’s heritage-style lamp posts could soon appear at various places across the region.
Councillors will vote on a staff recommendation to remove the 39 lamp posts from Heritage Mall, near Bourke Street, and allocate them to eight residents and groups that had expressed interest in them.
The lamp posts, which were bought in 1988 and have no heritage value, will be removed as part of Heritage Mall upgrades during stage one of The Levee project.
Fifty years ago a fledgling musical theatre society staged a production of The Pirates of Penzance in Maitland.
Today, the Maitland Gilbert and Sullivan Musical Society has a membership of 80 who will celebrate the group’s anniversary next week by revisiting their inaugural production.
From the Maitland Mercury report: When Bev Bradfield married her husband 43 years ago a small doll was lodged on the bonnet of her bridal car announcing to the world a bride was on her way to the church.
Replaced with ribbons, bridal dolls are no more, and neither are a collection of other trinkets the Morpeth CWA will showcase during a special old-time luncheon.
There’ll be Enid Blyton books on show, hairdryers that came in a large carry case, salt and pepper shakers shaped into animal figurines and an ornate 70-year-old christening dress owned by branch president Heather Whyburn.
The Remember When luncheon will be held at the Catholic Hall in Morpeth on July 22. All are welcome.
August 2014 marks one hundred years since the start of World War One. To commemorate this landmark occasion, British Pathé have launched this definitive collection of WW1 films.
British Pathé holds one of the finest and most comprehensive First World War archives in the world. If you are unable to find what you are looking for, you can explore the entire archive.
He has been a High Street landmark since 1866 and now the legend of Maitland’s black boy is about to become an animated movie.
It’s all thanks to decades of research by American author Waymon Lefall who has written a book called Jocko: A Long Way From Home Down Under.
LeFall, who visited here to see the statue in 2009, has long felt a connection to Maitland because of the little black boy, as he is affectionately known.
Maitland’s black boy statue – originally used as a hitching post for horses – is a replica of lawn jockey statues seen in the United States, but he is also a symbol of courage.
When Donald Cracknell died on the battlefields of France in 1916 a bronze medallion was delivered to his mother.
The Dead Man’s Penny, sent on behalf of King George V, did little to ease Susan Cracknell’s heartache of losing her 23-year-old son.
“None of them spoke about him,” the young soldier’s niece Adele Cockburn said. “In my grandmother’s lounge room there was a round table with a Bible and Uncle Donald’s photo next to it.
“There would always be a bunch of flowers on the table.”
Mr Cracknell was a 22-year-old lorry driver from the village of Kayuga outside of Muswellbrook when he enlisted in West Maitland on November 4, 1915.
Are you interested in the conservation and management of historic properties, and ready for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? If so, you might be the right person to take up a 40-year leasehold of Throsby Park, Moss Vale.This 74-hectare estate played a vital role in Sydney’s early history. Granted to Dr Charles Throsby by Governor Macquarie in 1819, it was the first and earliest land grant in the Southern Highlands. Throsby Park House (c1834) was home to six generations of the Throsby family.
Maitland has two finalists in different sections of the National Trust Heritage Awards.
Morpeth Court House Museum and Maitland Regional Art Gallery art and heritage audio tour will vie for an award in their respective categories.
The museum is entered in the adaptive reuse category, while the gallery is in the education and interpretation category.
Winners will be announced at Daltone House in Pyrmont, Sydney on May 14.
Built by William Cains and completed in September 1862, Morpeth Court House is in the middle of town on the corner of Swan and Northumberland streets.
The names of three Maitland World War I Diggers buried in a mass grave in northern France may be revealed this week in a poignant lead-up to Anzac Day.
The WWI soldiers are believed to be among the 20 Australians recently identified by DNA after their tragic deaths during The Battle of Fromelles 98 years ago.
The diggers expected to be included on the list are Weston miner Private James Balsdon, 27, of the 30th Infantry Battalion, West Maitland auctioneer Private Claud Yeo, 40, also of the 30th Infantry Battalion and Pelaw Main fitter, Sergeant William Wass, 33, of the 54th Infantry Battalion.
They are the endangered species of Maitland’s farming landscape.
Ramshackle structures built decades ago in a reflection of the city’s agricultural past.
And according to Millers Forest farmers Selby Green and Tony O’Hearn the humble hay shed is facing extinction.
“These hay sheds are so important to the landscape and history of Maitland, but people are just knocking them down to replace them with garden sheds and lawn lockers,” Mr Green, 67, said.
Hunter residents could soon take sick and injured pets to Morpeth’s historic post office building for treatment.
Maitland City Council is considering an application to convert the 1880 Swan Street building into an animal medical facility.
Council staff recommended that councillors approve an application to change the permitted use of the former post office and allow minor internal changes and signs to accommodate a vet clinic.
June and Frank O’Brien left their Horseshoe Bend home with nothing more than a bag filled with comic books and a bottle of coke when the 1955 flood inundated Maitland.
They were married not quite one year when they had to get out of Portland Street and walk along the railway line in Maitland to safety and family at Greta.
