Lost Newcastle - Carol Duncan

2013 has given Australian music icon, Russell Morris, an unexpected hit record some 44 years after his first national number one smash with pop-psychedelic smash, The Real Thing. I produced this music feature with Russell in 2014, although I first met him in about 1992 when I interviewed him in Hobart. He's smart, funny, brilliant and has always been just bloody fabulous and generous to me. Except...

Despite his incredible success as an actor and comedian, Hugh Laurie now calls himself 'musician'. His leap of faith to pursue his life-long love of blues music is proving to be a great decision - both for Hugh, and for music lovers. I was thrilled to be able to chat with Hugh in 2014. Hugh Laurie has loved the blues since he was seven years old. (:supplied ) "I'm following a well-trodden path of...

Rob Hirst - The Sun Becomes The Sea album release feature 2014First published ABC Radio Australia18 November, 2014 12:07PM AEDTRob Hirst - a new solo album and the Midnight Oil 'anti-plan'By  Carol Duncan Rob Hirst has a new solo album out - released under his own name instead of one of the innumerable musical units that he's part of. The Midnight Oil drummer and songwriter celebrates his new song...

James Reyne - Friday Music Show feature interview 2014James Reyne has an enviable career in the Australian music industry - first appearing on ABC TV's Countdown in 1979 with both of his arms in plaster after being hit by a car in Melbourne. Australian Crawl held court around Australia's pub rock scene for just seven years, but the sound of the band and the themes of their songs are the story of n...

Kate Miller-Heidke is one of Australia's most outstanding musical talents with a career exploding in all directions from pop to theatre and international opera. I spoke with Kate about her incredibly successful decision to crowdfund her latest album, O Vertigo, and the increasing demand for her to work in different genres. As a classically-trained singer, Kate Miller-Heidke is happy to accept the...

Iva Davies is one of Australia's most accomplished musicians and composers with a career spanning over 30 years with his band Icehouse, and as a composer for film and theatre. I produced this feature music show with him in 2014. The number one song on the Australian pop music charts in 1980 was The Buggles 'Video Killed The Radio Star', accompanied through the year by such gems as Michael Jackson...

Commissioned by Greenpeace Canada in 2015 for their podcast. Link to original post https://soundcloud.com/greenpeace-canada/ep-29-what-to-say-climate-change-vs-global-warming-whats-at-stake-for-the-great-barrier-reef

Unlike the huge and elaborate mosques seen in the Middle East, Newcastle Mosque is a small and humble building in Wallsend, but just as Christ Church and Sacred Heart Cathedrals are central to their respective Christian faiths in Newcastle, so is the mosque to Muslims. This interview from Carol Duncan's Local Treasures program in 2014.

One of Newcastle's living Local Treasures would have to be lifeguard Warren Smith who is retiring after nearly 40 years of keeping a safe eye on the waves. ABC Newcastle's Carol Duncan dropped in to Nobbys Beach to chat with Warren before he hangs up his wetsuit.

The French barque Adolphe is just one of many shipwrecks that litter the entrance to Newcastle Harbour, yet 110 years after the disaster, this vessel is still one of the most visible. Carol Duncan spoke with Deb Mastello of the Newcastle Maritime Centre.

The Birdwood Flag is considered to be one of the most significant Australian artifacts from WWI. Now in thousands of pieces, it's hoped that the flag will be restored. (The Birdwood Flag has now been restored.)

The Chapel of St Michael, or 'The Warrior's Chapel', at Newcastle's Christ Church Cathedral was created as a local sacred place where people could go to mourn loved ones lost to World War One - The Great War.

Newcastle has a long maritime history, but sadly part of that history includes a coastline that is now littered with numerous shipwrecks that cost many lives. But sometimes, the hardworking lifeboat crews and rocket brigades were able to save the lives of passengers and crew of ships wrecked on our coast.

Artist Julie Squires was commissioned to build the Muster Point sculpture for the closure of Newcastle's BHP Steelworks in 1999. The sculpture reflects on the experiences of the tens of thousands of people who worked at the plant over the 84 years of operation. Interview with Aubrey Brooks - former BHP employee and member of the Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association.

One of Newcastle's many hidden places, not open to the public, is a remnant of the Shepherds Hill defence group. A tunnel underneath Memorial Drive enabled power to be supplied to the WWII No 1 Searchlight which was situated on the face of the cliff below Strzelecki Lookout. [2013 - Carol Duncan speaks with Newcastle City Council Heritage Strategist, Sarah Cameron, about the hidden WWII tunnel und...

Newcastle's City Hall is a sister building to the Civic Theatre. Built in 1928-1929, the building marks the civic centre of Newcastle and remains a building that bustles with events and activities.

Built in 1877, Carrington Pump House once provided the hydraulic pressure required to drive loading cranes in the port of Newcastle.

Newcastle offers surfers plenty of world-class surf breaks, as recognised by the city's annual Surfest competition and the declaration of Merewether Beach as a National Surfing Reserve in 2009. But a lot of these breaks are known only by way of 'surf vernacular'. So what, and where, are these secret locations? Here's a guide.

Newcastle's original flagstaff represented both the existence of the early colony and communications between the colony and vessels off the coast.

Newcastle East Public School is the oldest continuously operating school in Australia having started in 1816.

The Obelisk in Newcastle stands on the site of the first windmill in the town which was built in 1820 to grind flour. The windmill itself became an important early navigational aid.

Newcastle's former Central Methodist Mission in King Street has been home to one of Newcastle's fine dining establishments - Bacchus Restaurant - and now to a new generation of bar and restaurant. It is beautifully ironic that the building that was once gave comfort to the Primitive Methodists of Newcastle has been renamed after the Greek god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual ma...

How often have you stopped for a rest on one of the low stone retaining walls at Blackbutt Reserve? Chances are, you're sitting on the remains of the early headstones from Newcastle's first European burial ground at Christ Church Cathedral.

The heritage-listed Regent Theatre, formerly Herbert's Theatre, was built in 1928 and is considered one of the few remaining 1920's 'picture palaces' remaining in Australia. Considered rare as there has been little adaption of the building's interior or exterior and it remains recognisable as a theatre.

Newcastle has its very own castle turret on top of The Hill in the form of the Leading Light Tower, or Beacon Tower. It was one of two built to assist captains in bringing their ships safely into the port. The coast around Newcastle is littered with hundreds of shipwrecks and the pair of towers built in 1865/1866 helped to increase the safety of vessels entering the Hunter River.