WESTON NSW 

HISTORY & HERITAGE

Remembering the Past with Hope for the Future

Welcome to Weston (NSW) History & Heritage!  

My name is Julie Frame Falk and I was born and raised in Weston, NSW.  About ten years of my young life was spent living in Weston's town centre where my parents had a small mixed business. My personal recollections of the town business centre are from about 1955 to 1965: see The Weston of My Youth .  I created this website to help preserve Weston's history by gathering together many pertinent facts, articles and  historic photographs, which appear throughout the following pages. 

 Basil Ralston wrote his memoir of Weston from an earlier period: see  'My Ten Years in Weston, 1926-1936' .  He said: ' You have a heritage like no other people in Australia. If I can show you something of what I know of it, I will have done something for Weston.'  

 Weston History & Heritage was established in conjunction with the:  Coalfields Local History Association Inc.  and the Facebook page:  I grew up in Weston and Survived.   Many articles relating to Weston are from the Coalfields Local History Association's Pioneer Days series by the late local historian, Brian Andrews.   See Weston Worthies page. 

Special thanks to all contributors to this website, especially Mélissa Martin and Lynne Kermode for transcribing the Pioneering Days articles.  Appreciation also to Ean Smith for his ongoing support and to all those with a connection to Weston who have shared their photographs and other information. Under 'More' in the top menu bar is a list of additional pages. A downward facing arrow next to them indicates more pages under them. Please click the arrow to expand the content.

Weston began to grow as a private town of great promise in 1903 due to vast coal deposits beneath  (see Hebburn Collieries ).  Tragically, though, many local men lost their lives in those mines. Crosses appear next to their names on the following timeline pages:

  Weston to 1910   1911-1920   1921-1960   1961-2000  and 2001-2020  

Today, the Hunter Valley NSW is renowed for its wines worldwide. In Weston, it was the Edwards family who pioneered grape-growing:  'in 1894, they went out into the hilly and heavily timbered country at Sawyer's Gully, and commenced clearing the forest in preparation for the planting of a vineyard. They were the first residents of that district.'       See Edwards Family Vinyard

Since young children were inclined to run a little wild in the new townships of Weston and Hebburn, the building of a school house became a matter of urgency, as shown in  William Walters' letter of appeal to the 'powers that be!  See: Weston Public School

Weston was hit with an outbreak of Smallpox in its early years, and inevitably, some crime:  See Smallpox at Weston  and  A Daring Weston Safe Robbery

The Co-operative Society movement was established by the pioneers of the Coalfields and Weston Co-op opened in 1912.  'The Store' - as it was affectionately known - and its many departments - was very popular.  The local housewives especially looked forward to 'Divvy Day' when it meant some extra money in their purses for family and household expenses: 

See Weston Co-op Store     Co-operative Societies  and   A Treasury of Meat Recipes

Over the later decades, Weston residents experienced the loss of  basic services once enjoyed by their forefathers, such as having a bank, a post office, a fire brigade, a police station and a railway station etc. See Weston Railway Station and Weston Station Sensation and  Weston Fire Brigade. While the Weston community adjusted to these losses, they have still been rightly vocal on the important issues affecting them.  Always, though, the residents of Weston hope for better opportunities and prosperity in the future.  See Fires, Floods & The Future   -  Hope for the Future  -  Weston NSW: 2024

Today, Weston is still a small town, with the population being just over 4000 in 2021, but it grew from people with big hearts. Many were Geordies from the north of England and also Scots. These pioneers who came to work in the Hebburn Collieries began with nothing but the will to create a better life for themselves and their families. First though, they had to build a town to live in!  Their progress can be followed through the timeline pages:

Weston to 1910   1911-1920   1921-1960  1961-2000  and 2001-2020 

See also: Services & Establishments  and  Pioneer Families

These sturdy souls knuckled down and worked harder than most of us could ever imagine and soon this little township grew and flourished with daily life revolving around the sound of the pit whistle. These townsfolk were innovative and hard-working . They built both community spirit through their School of Arts and  Progress Association, along with other community organisations tied to sport and recreation:

See  Sport and Recreation    A Weston Surf Carnival     The Pagans  

Weston Bears Football Club    Weston Cycling Club    Weston Workers Club

Additional subpages are listed under Sport and Recreation.  One story with some familiar Weston names is: When is a School not a School.

Over the decades, Weston has seen its sons go off to war, residents lose their livelihood with strikes and mine closures and face the usual ups and downs of commerce and industry. Given the inevitable circle of life, new families have come to settle in Weston and others have departed, but to those of us who descend from those early pioneers, Weston will always be our 'home'. 

Australian Bureau of Statistics data on the population of Weston:  Census of 2021.

See also:  Weston Roll of Honour    The 1929-30 Lockout    The Rothbury Troubles