This blog was also published in the Newcastle Herald
AS a former Sydney-sider and later Central Coastie I have to admit sometimes I find some things very weird about living in Newcastle.
To begin with:
– There’s an above-ground train line running right into the middle of the city. Whether you want it to go or to stay this was one of the things that first struck me about the town.
– When a Newcastle person talks about South’s, they’re not talking about the South Sydney Rabbitohs. As I discovered the other day the only Souths known to the Newcastle-man is the South Newcastle Rugby League Team and leagues club of the same name. The same goes for Wests.
– The term Novocastrian. Who made this up I don’t know, but when I first heard it I thought people were talking about a whole city of people aged in their nineties. Not even Wikipedia can explain it.
– The ‘‘Our Town’’ phenomena. Look up our ‘‘Our Town’’ in the white pages and you will see it is a prefix business name for everything from car batteries to mobile dog washes in Newcastle.
– Going ‘‘up’’ to Sydney. This is a personal pet-hate of mine. Sydney is south of Newcastle, you’re headed down. However I am told it used to be a vernacular convention to go ‘‘up’’ to a capital city. But to me, this just doesn’t make sense.
– Its exceptionally insular and parochial nature. For example I had never heard of Newcastle Herald until I went to university in Newcastle, even though I only lived about an hour away.
– There’s a nightclub called ‘‘Fanny’s’’. It’s main landmark is “Nobby’s”. And, people like to go swimming in the “Bogey Hole”.
– There’s more than one ‘‘Great Northern Hotel’’. There’s one in Newcastle and Teralba. It can’t be too great can it? After further research I’ve discovered there’s at least six Great Northern Hotels in NSW and more than 10 around Australia.
– The council runs it’s own Zoo called Blackbutt Reserve. It’s nice but an odd thing to do.
– What is Mattara and why is there a festival celebrating it? Not to mention a registered club named after it? Turns out it’s an Aboriginal word meaning hand.
– Coke isn’t just a soft drink. Apparently it’s some kind of byproduct of coal.
– There’s an “old gasworks” and apparently everyone knows where it is.
– Radio stations, radio ads and even worse.. television ads. There’s a big demand for industrial size water tanks, farm sheds and a pirate who promotes recycling in Lake Macquarie.
– Newcastle really likes the name “Lambton”. There’s Lambton, North Lambton, New Lambton and because they couldn’t get enough of it New Lambton Heights.
– Henny Penny. I thought this place when out of business last millennium but here it is alive and well in Newcastle.
– The Hunter is festival mad – in any one calendar year it’s got Mattara, This is not art, Darby Street, Catalina, Bitter and Twisted Beer, RevFest, SurFest, Spirit of the Vine, Shoal Bay Food and Wine, Tastes at the Bay, Festival of the Sea, Blue Water Country Music Festival, Dungog Film, Hunter Semillon and Seafood Festival
– It’s even more market mad, The Junction Olive Tree, Islington, Adamstown, New Lambton and Farmers Markets. It even hosts a World’s Biggest Car Boot Sale.
– There’s a place called The Store but there’s not much for sale. There’s a Newcastle Post Office but you can’t buy stamps there. There’s The Royal Theatre but no movies playing. No beer is brewed at The Brewery ( I really thought there was), rather it’s a pub. Customs House is not part of the port, it’s also a pub. There’s no gardens at Garden City, it’s actually a Westfields and Charlestown Square is a shopping centre not a town square, or square-shaped for that matter.
– It’s one of the few places outside Egypt with an Obelisk.
– Super Hubert. Here is a guy who has never had his own show or any reason to be famous but just turns up in Superman-style to suit, red hair and all to community events, Christmas Carols or the opening of an envelope.
– Big Dog.
– The university is its own suburb. If you live at Callaghan then chances are you’re sleeping in a lecture theatre.
– If you go up the street behind the Anglican Cathedral there’s a turret. A big old-fashioned medieval turret, just standing there between all the wealthy houses. No sign, no explanation, nothing.
– People call Newcastle a town. I’m pretty sure it’s bigger than that.
– The way NBN edits in Channel Nine news stories like no-one notices. Does everyone in Newcastle think Laurie Oaks has worked for NBN all this time?
– The Screaming Jets are hometown heroes while Silverchair only seem to get a cursory play on local radio.
And worst, and most worrying of all, the longer I live here the less weird it all seems.
allybuzz 