IN THIS ISSUE

 

BEACH GIRLS REMINISE - Page 14
Many of the women recently gathered at Newcastle Beach had only met fleetingly, if at all, and a few had not seen one another for sixty years. Yet amazingly, they all had one common link – they had all been Newcastle Beach Girl winners or finalists and had a story to tell of their experiences.
Katherine James was the instigator and organiser of the inaugural 2013 Miss Beach Girl Reunion, once one of Newcastle’s most prestigious beauty contests, and ran for twenty-eight years from 1942 to 1970.
She couldn’t take the smile off her face as she stood on Newcastle Beach and gazed at the line-up of former winners and finalists being photographed. She had tracked each of them down and knew their names and the year they won.
“These ladies were part of Newcastle’s social fabric, and this contest is a typical example of such history which is being lost forever,” said Katherine. “During my research in locating past entrants, I discovered that even the surf life saving clubs they represented did not have any records of the countless young women who carried their name during the decades of the competition,” said Katherine...

 

KEEPING THE FAMILY TRADITION (Hughes Home) - Page 23
Two Lake Macquarie homeowners have successfully created an award-winning lakeside home, close to where they both grew up. Now, every day, their family can relive those carefree days on Lake Macquarie, right from their own back door.
As they stood and watched his great aunt’s home go under the hammer in 2003, youthful memories came flooding back of those carefree summer holidays spent sailing and skiing around Lake Macquarie. David and Elise are the next generation owners of the actual site on which now stands their spectacular, newly-built family residence.
Novocastrian couple, David and Elise, at that time of auction were expats living and settled in Wollongong with their two children, due to David’s employment. They had travelled back to Belmont to see family and hearing of the property’s auction day, dropped in to support great aunt Betty who had lived in the house since the 1940s...

 

A HOME FOR ALL SEASONS (Mark Lawler Home) - Page 59
We all hope there is a reward for the effort made during our working lives. Ideally we can live in the house we have always desired and have the time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour in comfortable surroundings. The owners of this property have had the good fortune to be able to turn this dream into reality. They acquired a very large site in a rural subdivision sometime ago and recently decided to build a new house with all the advantages of contemporary living. This house replaces their original, conventional home, built decades earlier, when first starting a family and a business...

 

CRAFT & QUALITY (Martin House) - Page 92
A perfect example of uncompromised detail and quality meeting incredible design. Designed and masterfully constructed, this majestic, contemporary residence of more than 400 square metres including double garage, decks and balconies is a statement of style over three levels. The cutting-edge masterpiece exudes quality at every turn, highlighted by its vast, flowing living spaces and passive environmental design. When Denis and Desiree Martin acquired their one-acre block at Aberglasslyn, outside of Maitland, they were one of the first to build in the rural-styled estate which overlooked open green paddocks across to Lambs Valley and the mountains beyond. As a home builder himself, Denis’ first priority was to build a massive shed from which he could run his expanding residential and commercial building business. There was mezzanine-level accommodation for himself, Desiree and their first child Molly. This is where the family began life in a basic shed until Denis started plans to build their dream home, which now sits on a nearby ridge overlooking the glorious countryside. However, with baby number two on the way he was given a good reason to start work on the project, prompted by his wife who was keen to see the home well under way...