- Title
- Singing and identity formation in Newcastle, 1860-1880: choirs, cultivation and connectedness
- Creator
- English, Helen
- Relation
- Journal of Australian Colonial History Vol. 19, p. 95-118
- Relation
- http://www.une.edu.au/about-une/faculty-of-humanities-arts-social-sciences-and-education/school-of-humanities/research/journal-of-australian-colonial-history/jach-volumes
- Publisher
- University of New England, School of Humanities
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- This article discusses the role of singing in the creation of community identity in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), and its mining townships. The townships discussed here were established from the late 1850s in the wake of the Australian Agricultural Company's relinquishment in 1847 of its coalmining monopoly in the district. In 1860 the Newcastle Wallsend Company opened a mine at Wallsend. In 1863 a workforce drawn mainly from the north of England began mining at Lambton, eight kilometres west of Newcastle, managed by Thomas Croudace for the Scottish Australian Mining Company. A third township, Waratah, was created in the wake of the development of the railway from 1860 when local landowner, Thomas Grove, leased his land to the newly established Waratah Coal Company in 1862. These townships remained isolated in the 1860s due to poor roads and a lack of public transport. They developed with relative autonomy, relying on their own resources to create their social activities and cultural institutions. These were self-reliant communities, which helps account for their strong and lively musical practices. Brass bands, benefit concerts and singing, both of folk and notated music, became key cultural practices.
- Subject
- signing; community identity; choirs; Newcastle, (NSW)
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1384602
- Identifier
- uon:32110
- Identifier
- ISSN:1441-0370
- Language
- eng
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