2001- 2020

STEWART PIKE HONOURED

2001:     26 Jan: Stewart Alan Pike of Weston was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to sport as a gold medalist at the Paralympic Games Sydney 2000.

2001:      Stewart Alan Pike was awarded the Cessnock City Council Australia Day Sports Award 2001

2001:      Nov:  Every Local Government in Australia asked to nominate an outstanding individual to be exhibited in Canberra's Peoplescape exhibition - Stewart Pike of Weston was selected.  

See SPORTING NOTABLES 

2001:      25 Mar: Rodney Partington was killed in a bomb blast at Weston Gipsey Joker's clubhouse.

 2001:     27 Apr:  NSW Governor, Prof. Marie Bashir, was guest of honour at Weston Workers Club for Two Bishops' Trust Dinner. It was her first official appointment.

2001:      Aug:   Signode strapping plant of Weston announced a $10,000 community support scheme.

2001:     03 Oct:  Weston's Peace Park allocated $90,000 for a childrens' playground.

2001:     30 Oct:  Weston Womens' Bowling Club disbanded after 56 years.

2002:        30 Mar:  Weston Workers Cricket Club VAW won back to back Maitland Cricket Association premierships.

2002:         Norsk Hydro purchased the local aluminium smelter from the parent company VAW.

2002:         On 3 Oct. 2002, Weston's Peace Park was allocated $90,000 for a children's playground.

'BLUEY' FRAME PARK

2003:    On 11 Apr 2003, a proposal to have the park adjacent to the Weston Fire Station named 'Bluey Frame Park' in honour of former long-serving fireman and captain, Edward John 'Bluey' Frame (1889-1968), appeared in the NSW Government Gazette and was subsequently approved. 

See EDWARD JOHN 'BLUEY' FRAME  &  WESTON FIRE BRIGADE

Above :  Bluey Frame's descendants celebrate the naming of the park.

L-R: Bluey's daughter-in law Fay Frame (1932-2023) with granddaughter Caitlin; his son, Edward 'Coogan' Frame O.A.M. (1917-2007);  daughter Dawn Frame O'Connor; son Arthur Frame (1922-2009); great-grandson Sam Turner; peeping through in front of Sam is Alex and Fay Frame's granddaughter Claudia; granddaughter Catherine O'Connor Crowley; Bluey Frame's daughter Dulcie Frame Fleet (1920-2009); granddaughter Catherine Fleet Turner; granddaughter Julie Frame Falk and son Alex Frame (1928-2023).     

~ Frame Family Collection

More details at:

MY FRAME FAMILY

NORSK HYDRO CELEBRATE 40TH ANNIVERSARY

2009:          In November 2009,  Norsk Hydro celebrated the 40th anniversary of the local smelter.

2012:          

In September 2012,  hot metal production in the potlines at Hydro Aluminium ceased.

In October 2012,  Hydro stopped producing casthouse products and the smelter closed permanently in 2014.    See Hope for the Future

WESTON FEATURED IN YOPLAIT COMMERCIAL

2013: In May 2013, the special charm and potential of Weston was recognised and utilised in a fun way. Weston was chosen for the location of a television commercial for yoghurt manufacturer, Yoplait.  Perhaps a small claim to fame and one we will happily acknowledge!  In the advertisement, Weston and another local town, Mulbring , were featured.  During production, Weston became un peu français  (just a little bit French) . The town was transformed into part of the hypothetical town of 'Yogga Yogga'. The Criterion Hotel became The Frog & Snail Hotel, and ‘the little green shop’ in Station Street became Le Mixed Business.

Damon Cronshaw wrote about the Yoplait advertisement in the Newcastle Morning Herald on 31 May 2013:

'IN a small country town named Yogga Yogga, passion for yoghurt from France has become so entrenched that Aussies have taken on the French way of life.

This town, though, is actually parts of Weston and Mulbring, in Cessnock local government area, which feature in a television advert for Yoplait yoghurt.

The commercial, which recently went to air, features an Australian family who prefer a French breakfast.

A family man drives a converted Citroen ute through country roads where the imagery is Australian, but ‘‘a little French’’.

Weston was chosen for its ‘‘iconic architecture and village feel’’, with the Criterion Hotel becoming ‘‘The Frog and Snail Hotel’’ in the advertisement.

The scenic backdrop and rural character of Mulbring were considered prime Australian imagery for the brief, which included landscapes that ‘‘scream country Australia”.

Screen Hunter Central Coast and Cessnock City Council’s economic development unit scouted areas for the commercial.

Cessnock Mayor Bob Pynsent said the council was ‘‘proud of what’s in our own backyard’’.

The film organisation’s manager, Annette Hubber, said that the area’s picturesque qualities were ‘‘the ideal location to represent regional Australia’’.

Photoplay Films used 30 people in the production, travelling in seven vans and two trucks, with two tracking vehicles to film the advert.’

See below, the video of the Yoplait TV commercial:

2014:     On the evening of 4 October 2014, Weston Workers Club hosted the very successful BACK TO WESTON event.  

Many former Weston residents enjoyed being able to gather together with those still living in the town. They reminisced about old times, viewed old photographs and generally just enjoyed catching up with one another and sharing their memories.

2014:     On 17 Oct 2014 the  'BACK TO WESTON' committee members presented Weston Public School with a cheque for $2010, being the residual funds from ticket sales for the reunion event.

2014: In September2014, Bob Wells Bridge in Fourth Street, Weston, was re-opened after much-needed refurbishment. The bridge had deteriorated badly due to age and weather conditions and had been closed since April.

2015: Cessnock's longest serving councillor, Jeff Maybury, died on Monday 6 July, 2015.  He had been an Alderman on Cessnock City Council for 35 years and was affectionately referred to as the 'Mayor of Weston'. See Weston Worthies page.

2016:

From The Advertiser 6 Jun 2016: 

JEFF MAYBURY NAMED FREEMAN OF THE CITY

• Krystal Sellars

'Jeffrey Maybury gave so much to the community in his 71 years, and never asked for anything in return.

Mr Maybury’s selfless attitude and dedication to the community was recognised on Thursday when he was posthumously awarded the title of Freeman of the City of Cessnock.

Mr Maybury was Cessnock City Council’s longest-serving councillor when he passed away on July 6, 2015.

He was first elected to the council in 1980, and was also an active volunteer with the St Vincent de Paul Society, Weston RSL Sub-Branch, Weston Tidy Towns and many other community-focused projects.

A life member of the Australian Labor Party, he was affectionately known as “the Mayor of Weston”, with Peace Park at Chinaman’s Hollow among his proudest achievements in his time on the council.

Freeman of the City is the highest acclamation Cessnock City can bestow upon one of its citizens.

Dating from the thirteenth century, the award is an honour of distinction and carries no privileges but is the means by which an individual is given recognition for an outstanding sense of duty. 

Cessnock Mayor Bob Pynsent presented said Freemen uphold the very highest moral and ethical standards within our community.

“Freemen walk softly, but with great determination. They are humble, but stand tall and give so much of themselves without seeking fame, fortune or acknowledgement,” Cr Pynsent said.

“The only reward they seek is achievement – not for themselves, but achievement for those who lives they influence and help along the way. 

“It is an honour and great privilege to acknowledge Jeff today for his lifelong contribution to the Cessnock local government area and our people.”

Mr Maybury’s daughter Karen Jurd said their family was grateful that he has been honoured with this award.

“We are sincerely thankful for the recognition,” she said.

“On this very special day we are so proud to be Jeff Maybury’s family.

“Helping people was not a chore to him; it came naturally and for him it was just the normal thing to do.”

Mr Maybury joins an esteemed list of Freemen of the City of Cessnock, which includes Coogan Frame, Cecil Anstey, Fred Yeatman, Mick Frame, Neville Bothwell, Elsie Doyle, John Munro, Marie Davies, Harold Sternbeck, Myra Hill and Bruce Wilson.'

See: Hope for the Future and Weston Worthies

WESTON FIRE STATION TO CLOSE

See also: Weston Fire Brigade .  Sad news from The Advertiser:

JANUARY 11 2017 

Weston Fire Station to close, brigade to merge with Abermain

Krystal Sellars

 'Fire and Rescue NSW has confirmed it plans to close Weston Fire Station when the new station at Abermain is fully operational.

FRNSW Assistant Commissioner Gerry Byrne said it is planned that the Abermain and Weston fire engines and on-call firefighters will be co-located at the new station.

The Fire Brigade Employees’ Union is opposing the closure of the Weston station, saying the merger will reduce services and cost jobs.

While it is planned that all current personnel from each brigade will be located at the new station, the union says the Weston station has been deliberately understaffed in order to justify its closure.

“The community of Weston is the latest target of Baird's irresponsible budget cuts,” FBEU state secretary Leighton Drury said.

“Weston is facing not only a loss of professional fire and rescue services, but also much-needed local jobs.”

Each brigade currently has one pump truck (used for urban firefighting). The new station will accommodate one pump truck and one tanker truck (used for bushfires).

Assistant Commissioner Byrne said the combination of the two trucks would increase the brigades’ capability to deal with fires and enable firefighters to provide better safety and protection of local communities.

But the union fears there will be a reduction in firefighting staff at Abermain and Weston resulting from the change in appliance, saying the tanker requires less personnel.

Member for Cessnock Clayton Barr said he was gravely concerned about the Weston station’s closure, particularly in light of proposed changes to the emergency services levy.

In recent decades, emergency services have been funded by a combination of sources: 73.7 percent from insurance companies (collected as a levy from home insurers), 14.6 percent from the NSW Government and 11.7 percent from local councils.

But the government is proposing a change to the funding model that would see the percentage collected from home insurance levies replaced by a levy imposed on all land rates for all properties.

“It is incredible that the government would be shutting down the Weston fire station at a time when they are planning to collect more money than ever before from the people of Weston to fund emergency services,” Mr Barr said.

“Building the new fire station at Abermain is welcomed, but the government need to stop sneaking around in the shadows, and instead, front the people of Weston and tell them what the future holds for their fire station.”

Mr Barr said the closure of the Weston station could result in the loss of well-trained people.

He said while Abermain was only three kilometres away, it was more likely that the Weston firefighters would be the last to reach the station and might miss the truck altogether (a truck requires four personnel to leave the station).

2017:     On 20 Feb 2017, the Geographical Names Board called for comment on a proposal to rename Peace Park to Maybury Peace Park.  

'A lovely ceremony was held at Chinaman’s Hollow on Wednesday to officially rename Peace Park to Maybury Peace Park.

The park’s new name honours the outstanding dedication of the former Cessnock councillor Jeff Maybury, who died in July 2015 after a battle with cancer.

Affectionately known as the Mayor of Weston, Mr Maybury, 71, was Cessnock’s longest-serving councillor, with 35 years of loyal service.

Peace Park was one of his proudest achievements in his time on the council.

In addition to his commitment to council, Mr Maybury was also very active with the St Vincent de Paul Society, the Tidy Town movement and the Weston RSL Sub Branch.

In June 2016 he was named a Freeman of the City, which is the highest acclamation Cessnock City can bestow on its citizens.

See: Hope for the Future and Weston Worthies

FIELD OF HONOUR - 2019

FIELD OF HONOUR 

Each Flag represents the final resting place of a local Digger.

~ All Field of Honour photos courtesy of Shellie Pauling, IGUIWAS

From the website: 

FIELD OF HONOUR 

  'In 2019, the Field of Honour was held on ANZAC Day, and 26, 27 and 28 April at Kurri Kurri Cemetery. It is planned to hold the event each ANZAC Day, with next year’s event on 25 and 26 April 2020.

The Field of Honour involved the temporary installation of Australian flags on the graves of returned diggers. The event was held to coincide with ANZAC Day in order to pay respect to those that served.

The display was visited by large crowds attracted to the Kurri Kurri Cemetery over the four days. It was truly an amazing site to see 250 flags waving in the breeze above the graves of the diggers. The response from the general public and the families of diggers was overwhelming positive.

The display was coordinated by Towns With Heart Inc in conjunction with the Coalfields Heritage Group, and took thousands of hours of research and organisation by the volunteers of these organisations. The event was also supported by the Kurri Kurri RSL Sub branch and several other community groups. 

During the four days, several more graves of diggers were identified.'

ANZAC DAY 2019

LOST DIGGERS OF WESTON - 2019

2019:    

The Lost Diggers of Weston Exhibition was launched on Anzac Day.

From the Maitland Mercury 23 Apr 2019

Meg Francis

     FOR the first time in nearly a century, the lost portraits of more than 60 World War I soldiers will be unveiled for public viewing.

Opening fittingly on Anzac Day, the Lost Diggers of Weston exhibition consists of photographs enlarged from glass plate negatives produced by Scottish migrant photographer Alexander Galloway in 1916. 

For nearly 100 years, they laid forgotten until a builder unearthed more than 400 glass plate negatives during the renovation of a home in Weston in 2011. He handed the collection over to the Coalfields Heritage Group. 

And for the past 14 months - in partnership with Towns with Heart - they have laboured to restore and digitise the portraits, working at the Edgeworth David Memorial Museum.

Towns with Heart's Bill Holland said the portraits were all exceptional but exhibition organisers were drawn to the portraits of World War I Diggers - taken just prior to their departure for Europe.

"The vast majority of these boys are from the Coalfields. It was incredible," he said.

"We thought these men went off to war, and a lot of them didn't return home and then they sat under a house. We decided people need to hear their stories."

The two groups have prepared biographies of all soldiers they have been able to identify. It was a painstaking process with the would-be historians working "hammer and tongs" to discover the lives of the Diggers. 

"We wouldn't change the experience and impact that this has had on all of us," Mr Holland said. 

"It's been absolutely phenomenal. So many people in their lifetime would never get the opportunity to do what we've done. 

"We felt that we owe it to these people them, and their stories deserve to be told."

The group has prepared biographies on more than 20 of the 60 plus soldiers.

The exhibit, located at Kurri Kurri Anglican Church Hall, will run for just four days from April 25 to April 28.

As for the future of the Lost Diggers of Weston exhibition? 

"We are hoping this becomes a traveling exhibition so people can read the stories of ordinary men who did something extraordinary with their lives," Mr Holland added. 

"After all, the ode says lest we forget."

2019 :   September 10 saw the sad passing of Coalfields local history stalwart, Brian Andrews.   Brian was not from Weston but without his unswerving dedication to ensure the history of our area was not lost, this website would never have been possible. Brian Andrews devoted his life to preserving the history of the Hunter Valley. He was a founding member of the Coalfields Heritage Group and a long-serving curator of the Edgeworth David Museum at Kurri Kurri, Mr Andrews passed away on Tuesday, September 10, aged 76.  

See the WESTON WORTHIES page.  

 HARDSHIP THEN HOPE

See Hope for the Future

Re-capping: The $25 million Alcan Aluminium Smelter was opened by the Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck on 17 Nov 1969. It was located on a 60 hectare site within a buffer zone of 2,100 hectares on Hart Road, Loxford. 

In 2002, Norsk Hydro purchased the Alcan  Aluminium Smelter from the parent company, VAW, rebranding it Hydro Aluminium.

In 2009, Hydro Aluminium celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the local aluminium smelter. 

Sadly, in Sep. 2012, hot metal production ceased.

In Oct. 2012, the smelter stopped producing casthouse products.

It was the end of an era; not unlike the closure of the local coal mines in previous years. Naturally, the lives of many families in our nearby towns were severely impacted.  But as always, they survived as best they could.

In 2018, a mural by Daniel Joyce was officially opened on Hart Road, Loxford in remembrance of the former works and in keeping with Kurri Kurri's 'Town of Murals' theme. More details from The Loxford. 

2020:

 HOPE!  KURRI REBORN

See also:  Hope for the Future

In January 2020, under the heading:  Kurri Reborn,  the McCloy group announced a major development for the local area. This will have a substantial impact on both Weston and Kurri Kurri.  See full report: Here.

'In what both men describe as the biggest projects of their careers, Jeff McCloy and fellow developer John Stevens have teamed up to transform Hydro’s Kurri Kurri smelter site into industrial estates, a business park and a new suburb called Loxford Waters. While the residential side could include more than 2000 homes, substantial parts of the 2000-hectare site will be kept as environmental and buffer zones. Demolition has almost finished on the smelter, which closed in 2014, and Hydro is finalising remediation plans...'

EDGEWORTH DAVID MEMORIAL MUSEUM MOVING

BIG News for 2020!  If you haven't visited the Edgeworth David Museum previously you should make a point of doing so at their new home in Abermain.

See also:  Coalfields Local History Association Inc.  

From The Advertiser  FEBRUARY 10 2020:  

 Edgeworth David Museum moves from Kurri Kurri High School to the Abermain School of Arts

• Krystal Sellars

  'Hundreds of artifacts, thousands of photos and millions of pages of local history will be boxed up this week as the Sir Edgeworth David Memorial Museum prepares to relocate to its new home.

The museum - which has operated in the grounds of Kurri Kurri High School for more than 20 years - will be moving to the former Abermain School of Arts on Cessnock Road.

The building, a former Pokolbin school house which was moved to Kurri Kurri to house the museum, will be utilised by the high school.

For a centre that houses hundreds of resources on the history of the northern coalfields, its new home could not be much more appropriate - it is just 100 metres across the road from where the museum's namesake discovered the Greta coal seam in 1886.

Coalfields Local History Association (formerly known as Coalfields Heritage Group) has managed the museum since 1996, and the association's secretary Lexie Matthews is excited about the move.

"Sir Edgeworth David contributed money into the building fund to build the School of Arts at Abermain, so if we have to relocate from our home, this is the ideal place to go," she said.

The museum houses more than 5000 items, including newspapers, maps, instruments, radios and televisions, Aboriginal artifacts, and sporting, mining, farming and military memorabilia, while the resource centre contains more than three million pages of information, across 3000 binders, boxes and reference books, documenting the history of 666 Hunter Valley towns and settlements and 906 coal mines. …

The relocation came about as the high school required the building for expansion, and Cessnock councillor Darrin Gray stepped in to facilitate the move to the Abermain School of Arts (a council-owned building).

Cr Gray - who tabled the proposal in a notice of motion in September - said it was "imperative to keep this priceless collection of history" in the Coalfields.

"The beauty of the location is, it will make it accessible to the public, and it is a tourism drawcard in the middle of Abermain, 100 metres from where Edgeworth David struck coal," he said.

As the building is in Crown Land, the Abermain School of Arts will technically be the museum's interim home, as council must complete plans of management for all Crown Land that it manages by June 2021.

The school of arts was vacated by Coalfields Neighbour care last year, while Community Health nurses will continue to use the rooms at the rear of the building.

Ms Matthews said the new museum will be presented much differently than at its current site.

"It will be totally different to what we've been working with, but in the end we're expecting it to be a magnificent place to visit," Ms Matthews said.

A small band of helpers, including archivists from the University of Newcastle, have been working tirelessly to catalog every item in the museum before the big move. ...

...Ms Matthews said while it will be sad to leave Kurri Kurri after such a long time, she sees a bright future for the museum in Abermain.

"We have many new members on board to help us bring the museum back into the news," she said.

"We will be, for the first time ever, where the public can see us as they journey through the wonderful town of Abermain.

"We are trying our utmost to make it a smooth ride as our journey continues to bringing history to the Hunter Valley."

The museum will be closed during the move, and hopes to re-open as soon as possible at Abermain.

And, in amongst the big move, the association's volunteers are also preparing to host the Lost Diggers of Weston exhibition and Field of Honour once again on the Anzac Day weekend.

The event, held in conjunction with Towns With Heart, drew hundreds of visitors to Kurri Kurri over the Anzac Day long weekend last year.

A presentation on the Lost Diggers was held at Kurri Kurri Library on Tuesday, February 18 as part of the Cessnock City Seniors Festival.'