Interview with Mitchell Pain about fishing industry - 1989 (sound bite)

Short sound bite created for "Home Grown in the Hunter" Exhibition. Full interview available HERE

Interview by Julie Tregarthen in 1989 with Alfred Mitchell & George Pain about the growth and development of the fishing industry in Nelson Bay.

Alfred was born in 1910 in New Zealand. His family moved to Port Stephens to take up farming. The fishing techniques used were beach seine netting, net fishing, cray fishing and trapping. The catch would be loaded onto lorries with ice and transported to Newcastle, and later to Sydney.

Alfred was a foundation member of the fishermen's Co-op in Newcastle and he says that the government played an important role in the growth of the industry in Nelson's Bay.

George was born in 1916 in Anna Bay, Port Stephens. His family had been market gardeners before moving into the fishing industry. He speaks about the different species of fish and the future of the fishing industry.

The Margaret Henry Oral History Archive is a collection of audio tapes, transcripts, summaries and essays that were part of the Oral Histories Open Foundation Course (1986-1989). Margaret Henry was a history lecturer at the UON in the 1980s