1961-2000

WESTON RESIDENTS OUT AND ABOUT

Weston Methodist Church ladies outings 1950s - 1960s.

1963:

1963:      28 Feb:  Kurri Kurri Public School unsuccessfully applied to Cessnock Council to have First to Tenth streets at Weston renamed.

1963:      Mar:  Weston Pensioners' Hall in Second Street was destroyed by fire.

1964:      Weston Art Show first commenced.

'Dutch-born Marguerithe Ruygrok, of Weston, NSW, Australia has been chosen to represent Australia in the Olympic swimming team at Tokyo. Marguerithe won the 100 and 200 metres titles in the NSW amateur swimming championships in Sydney, setting up an Australian record of 1/29.09 seconds fro the shorter event, and even breaking record time for the 200 meters with 2/53.5 seconds. In the Australian championships she clocked an even faster 100 meters breast stroke of 1/22.8 seconds. Marguerithe came to Australia when she was 4 years old and was naturalised in 1960. Marguerithe Ruygrok, at 16, is Australia's best prospect in the breast stroke style.' [National Archives of Australia]

1965 - 30 Jun:   Edward John Frame, who had served the Weston Fire Brigade for 52 years, the last 24 as Captain,  retired.    In 2002 the park adjacent to the Weston Fire Station was re-named in his honour.

1965:     30 Jun:  Capt. E. Brewis replaced E. J. Frame as Captain of the Weston Fire Brigade.

1969:      17 Nov:  The $25 million Alcan Aluminium Smelter at Loxford was officially opened by the Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck.  The smelter was located on a 60 hectare site within a buffer zone of 2,100 hectares, on Hart Rd, Loxford.  The site is about two kilometres north of the towns of Weston, Kurri Kurri, and Heddon Greta.  

1969:     15 Jun:  The Kurri Kurri Fire Brigade were called to help fight a shop fire in Weston.

1969:      8 Sep:  When fire broke out in a Weston Butchery, the Kurri Kurri Fire Brigade were called to assist..  

1970:  13 Mar:  Fire broke out in the Weston Co-op Store . Weston and Kurri Kurri Fire Brigades fought the fire.

1972: 

1972:    30 Jun: Hebburn No.2 Colliery ceased coal production.

1973:

1973:     Arthur Tungate was appointed Captain of the Weston Fire Brigade, replacing Captain E. Brewis.   Captain Tungate had previously been at Stanford Merthyr.

1973:      8 Mar: The old wooden Homestead Bridge in Government Road, Weston was soon to be replaced by a concrete bridge.

1974:      10 Jan:  Fr. Michael Cooper, 27, became the new rector of St. Mary's Anglican Church.

1974:       Apr:  Alderman Andrew James 'Mick' Frame  gave details of a proposal for a mining museum at Freemans Waterhole.

1974:       Oct:  The new Weston Fire Brigade building (see below) was completed. The cost: $27, 413.

1976:      Dec:   Margaret Fairfull, 22, of Weston, a travel agency worker, gained the highest marks in a world-wide examination based on facets of international airline travel.

1977:

1977:     23 Mar:  The Rev. Max Trinbell was appointed rector of St Mary's Anglican Church after spending most of his 28 years in the ministry in outback Australia.

1977:     30 Mar:  Mr. Mick Frame, who had been connected with Ambulance classes for 40 years, received his second award, a 'Certificate of Merit', from the NSW St. John's Ambulance Association.

1977:      Apr:  The first workers move onto the Joy Manufacturing site at Weston.

1977:     3 Aug: Loutish behaviour forced the Weston Civic Centre Committee to cancel the regular Youth Dances in its hall in Station Street Weston.

1977:      Sept:  Weston Bears soccer team was flushed with success by winning the pre-season, 1st grade minor and major premierships and club championship. No other club in northern soccer history had ever completed this fete.   

See: Weston Bears Football Club.      Play video below:

1977:      16 Nov: Major expansion works were undertaken at Joy Manufacturing at Weston.

1977:       25 Nov: The Pagans Football Club held a reunion attended by 400 at Weston Workers Club.

1978:       A fire in a shop on the corner of Station Street and Cessnock Road caused considerable damage.

1978:      24 Jan: Punters began using the Weston TAB Agency established next door to the Aberdare Hotel in Cessnock Road.  Neil and Carole Russell, who owned the hotel, built the agency on former hotel land.

1978:      Joy Manufacturing officially opened.

1978:      17 May: Cessnock City Librarian, Mr Reg Horner, advised that the Weston branch of the Library would remain open even though it had  poor patronage.

1978:       7 Jun: Joy Manufacturing at Weston had almost reached its full development potential. The workforce had reached 87.  The first workers had moved onto the site in April 1977 and the factory was officially opened just two months ago.

1978:       28 Jun: Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Streets at Weston, still being unsealed, caused a great deal of anguish to residents who formed themselves into a group to seek help from Council.

1979:       3 Jan:  Andrew James 'Mick' Frame (b. 1911 Weston) was honoured by the Kurri Kurri Hospital Board for his 22 years of service to the community.  The Board placed a framed portrait of Mick Frame in the hospital.  

See:  Andrew James 'Mick' Frame O.A.M.

1979:      26 Jan:   Andrew James 'Mick' Frame (b. 1911 Weston) was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in recognition of service to the community.

1979:       Mr John Jones was appointed postmaster at Weston after previously being at Manildra, between Orange and Parkes.

1980:

1980:      The Alcan Aluminium Smelter was expanded with a second potline, reaching capacity of 90,000 M.T.P.A. Later, the smelter capacity increased to 180,000 metric tonnes.

1980:    12 Mar: Membership of the re-formed Weston Retired Mineworkers had grown to 70, over which Mr Ernie Dunlop presided.

1980:    19 Mar: Aldermen Mick Frame (b.1911 Weston) and Allen Musgrove (Weston) of Greater Cessnock City Council announced that they would not seek re-election at the next election in September. By then, Mr Frame would have served 18 years and Mr Musgrove 12 years.

1981:     7 May: Two shops in Station Street were destroyed by fire.

1982:

1982:      8 Jun:  A cake and coffee shop in Cessnock Road caught fire.

1983:

1983:     21 Oct: Fire destroyed a house in Date Avenue Weston.

1984:

1984:      30 Apr:  Fire severely damaged a house in Cessnock Road Weston.

1987: 

1987:      Andrew James 'Mick' Frame (b. 1911 Weston) was named Kurri Kurri Apex Citizen of the Year.  

See:  Andrew James 'Mick' Frame O.A.M.

1989:

1989:      Masonic Lodge Tomalpin was formed by the amalgamation of the Weston and Kurri Kurri Lodges. It met at the Masonic Centre, Second Street Weston.

In 1990,  Weston experienced more severe flooding.  

The following group of photographs of the indundation around Fourth and Swanson Streets are courtesy of Lisa Williams and the Facebook group, I grew up in Weston and survived (IGUIWAS). 

See also Fires, Floods & Future Challenges 

1992:               Weston Swifts were formed in 1992 as an All Age club competing in the Coalfields Amateur Soccer Association competition. 

1993:                Katie's Sale Store opened in Cessnock Road Weston in the old Co-op Store building.

1994:       Apr:  Cessnock City Council inaugurated its 'Freeman of the City' award.  Edward John 'Coogan' Frame (b. 1917 Weston) was the first recipient. 

See: Edward John 'Coogan" Frame

1994:       Apr:  Closure of the Commonwealth Bank in Weston (see below).

1994:    Weston was dealt a cruel blow in 1994 with the closure of its Commonwealth Bank. Two days after he was named the inaugural Freeman of the City of Cessnock, Edward John 'Coogan' Frame, who was born in Weston in 1917, the son of Edward John ('Bluey') and Catherine Frame, was taken into custody by the police when he and some of his retired miner mates arranged a protest at the Commonwealth Bank after being unable to pursuade the CBA bureaucrats to reconsider closing the bank. (He can be seen in the protest  photo above with the megaphone.) Coogan Frame decided that if that were to be the end of the town’s financial institution, then he would make sure it got a good funeral!  He organised a coffin, six pallbearers and a lone piper for the event. After addressing the hundreds of local residents in the crowd, persuading them to not tear up their bankbooks, he and a few of his loyal following staged a sit-in at the bank. Coogan Frame said in frustration at the time:  'We've got a Railway Station with no trains, a Police Station with no policemen, we almost had a Post Office with no stamps and now we will have a Bank with no money!'

After this event, Local Government writer, Maria Ceresa, wrote the following article:

'Two days after his community decided to honour Edward “Coogan” Frame for a lifetime’s local work, the retired miner was taken into custody.

On the morning of his arrest, Mr Frame gave his dog and cockatoo a double helping of tucker because he did not know when he would be back.

He then joined four of his retired mining mates in a sit-in at the Commonwealth Bank in the small Hunter Valley town of Weston to protest against the local branch’s closure.

The 76-year-old activist from Kurri Kurri was the youngest demonstrator who refused to leave the building. This, and his long reputation for leading local causes, meant he was the first to be led towards the paddy wagon.

The police then turned to his 81-year-old mate Les Harris, and asked if he would come quietly.

“Les told them” ‘I’ve been fighting beside Coogan in the mines for 60 years and I’m not about to stop following him now,’ Mr Frame said yesterday.

He and his mates were arrested on February 11. Two days earlier, Cessnock City Council had decided to bestow its highest honour on Mr Frame and make him its first Freeman of the City.

He will receive the unusual title in recognition of his lifelong community work next Tuesday.

The feisty activist believes the elderly people of Weston have a right to a local bank.

When the arresting police told him he might do time in the Cessnock lockup, he protested: “I told them I shop locally in Kurri, and that’s where I want to be locked up. The sergeant said he had dealt with drunks who were better behaved than us.”

The Federal Member for Charlton, Mr Bob Brown, rang the police station at the time, offering to bail out the men but they were never charged.

Mr Frame said the police had treated them so well they made the officers honorary members of the Retired Mineworkers Association.

And the Mayor of Cessnock, Councillor Maree Callaghan, quipped that she went to the police station to “protect the police”.

Councillor Callaghan said the reason behind Mr Frame’s arrest was the same as the reason for his honour- his love of the coalmining communities of the Hunter.

The battle to save the Weston bank joins Mr Frame’s demonstrations to save the Kurri Kurri Hospital, an 18-month-long fight-complete with picket line-to save the Wallsend Hospital building, numerous attempts to stop the State Government closing mines and a successful joust to relocate a retirement home.

His latest coup was a letter writing campaign, which resulted in the NSW Department of Health, granting the local hospital $200,000 worth of new X-ray equipment.

A letter to the Kurri Kurri Workers’ Club, signed by the Department’s head, Dr Tim Smyth, who has a “soft spot” for Mr Frame, reads:

“PS: Tell Coogan, no more letters!”

“If we didn’t fight, no-one else would,” Mr Frame said. “If we don’t show a bit of grit and guts, they’ll just tread on us.”

See: Edward John 'Coogan" Frame

1994:    On 10 Oct 1994, the former Weston Presbyterian Church in Cessnock Road (see above) was renovated to serve as a Coffee Shop for the Weston Tidy Town Committee.

1995:

1995:      In 1995, Alcan International divested its holdings in Alcan Australia and the wholly Australian-owned company became Capral Aluminium.

1996:

1996:     15 Aug 1996: Weston Ladies Bowling Club celebrated their 50th Anniversary.

 1996:     On 27 Nov 1996, Andrew James 'Mick' Frame (b. 1911 Weston) was awarded the honour of 'Freeman of the City of Cessnock.'   

See:  Andrew James 'Mick' Frame O.A.M.

30 Oct 1996: There was also an unsuccessful battle to save the Weston Post Office from closure.  Afterwards, Post Offices services were transferred to an agency in the town (see below).

1998:           29 May 1998:  A short-lived twelve issue newspaper called the Kurri Kurri-Weston News commenced. 

1999:           23 Feb 1999:  The first edition of a new weekly newspaper titled the Kurri Kurri & Weston Independent appeared.

1999:

55. BRONZE MEDAL

Arthur John Earl, Weston,

for his actions at the scene of a house fire at Weston.

On the morning of 11 November 1999, fire broke out in a home at Weston. Mr Earl noticed smoke coming from the roof of the house, and told his wife to call the fire brigade while he went to assist.

Believing people were inside, Mr Earl kicked in the back door but was unable to enter due to the thick smoke. He then kicked in the front door, and crawled inside the house.

After checking the lounge room and the two bedrooms without finding anyone, he exited the burning house and continued to hose down the building until the arrival of the fire brigade.

2000:      Capral Aluminium decided it could not support the capital required to maintain the local smelter and sold it to VAW - a German Aluminium Company.

2000:      On 28 Feb 2000, Arson fire destroyed a Weston Public School building valued at $30,000.00.

2000:      In Apr 2000, a  $1.1 million building project opened at Weston Public School included a school hall, canteen, library and covered walkways.

2000:      On 23 Aug 2000,  Swimmer Stewart Pike of Weston was awarded the Australian Sports medal.  

2000:      On 19 Oct 2000, Ms Briony Snedden of Weston was named Miss Cessnock City.

2000:      On 9 Nov 2000, an open space area adjacent to Weston Park and Government Road named the George Smith Reserve.

HERO'S WELCOME

2000:      On 23 Aug 2000,  Swimmer Stewart Pike of Weston was awarded the Australian Sports medal.  On 25 Nov 2000,  Stewart Alan Pike of Weston was given a hero's street parade through Weston in recognition of his outstanding performances in the Sydney Paralympics.    

See Stewart Pike  and SPORTING NOTABLES.