This image was scanned from the original glass negative taken by Ralph Snowball. It is part of the Norm Barney Photographic Collection, held by Special Collections.

If you have any information about this photograph, please contact Special Collections or add a Recollection, using these instructions.

hedfram2: This view is possibly a little later than 1896 as the General Roberts Hotel does not appear in licence records until 1904.

Buster Allen: A correction on street names: should be "Tauranga Rd" and "Rugby Rd". The Sportsman's Arms Hotel was demolished to make room for the expansion of Wests Leagues Club. The current Wests Leagues Club building expands from the General Roberts Hotel along Tauranga Rd up to Hobart Rd (where James Brown's residence is) around to Rugby Rd, then along Rugby Rd up to Lambton Rd. Google Maps reference

lachlan_wetherall: This photo adjoins www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3219719254/ to form a two panel panorama. Regarding the date of the photo, firstly a search of Trove shows that the tenders for the construction of the brick hotel were called for in September 1902 (trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/136574332) so the photo must be later than that date. An article on 17 April 1903 (trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133357604) documents the granting of a publican's license, and and the very next day (April 18) there is an advertisement for the opening of the hotel (trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/133366391). Secondly, visible in the photo is a cricket oval, originally known as "New Lambton Oval" and later renamed as Harker Oval. This was mentioned as being "in active preparation" in August 1919 (trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/139438692) and first appears in the publication of sporting results in 1920. Given the small stature of the trees around the oval, I would suggest this photo dates from around 1920. UON Library, University of Newcastle, Australia: Thankyou Lachlan Wetherall for providing us with this information. UON Library, University of Newcastle, Australia: Thanks Robert for the detective work in correcting the dating of this image. Email 10th February 2015: Last week I have a wonderful discovery in a pair of Snowball images of New Lambton. I had previously joined the two as a panorama a few years back, but never noticed an old railway embankment in the foreground. In the 1860s, the New Lambton Coal Company had a railway which passed by Harker Oval, went up Tauranga Road beside Wests, went under a wooden bridge adjacent to the General Roberts Hotel and out the other side at Royal Place. The line was ripped up in 1891-2. [Trove] Since Flickr have disabled "Notes", I have had to create my own explanation sheet. Attachment: I have marked the railway embankment, the steam tram shed and the railway cutting. Correction to Dates: Snowball didn't mark the photo, but the Cultural Collections has named it 1896. This cannot be possible, since the brick General Roberts hotel was built in 1903 [Trove+date on building+hotel not listed in Federal Directory 1901 - it is listed as a store]. Accordingly, can I suggest that the Box 3 photos ASGN0078-B3 and ASGN0079 might have been marked as June'06, and the transcriber has misread Snowball's handwriting as June'96. These are the two affected photos: www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3219719254 www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3219719358 RECOMMENDATION: change the date in the name of those two images to 1906. (I have dated my version 1906) I have attached the large photo which you can add to the Cultural Collections, otherwise I can put a smaller version in the thread below Snowball's. Please advise your preference. The building on that site beforehand was a wooden general store, also operated by Roberts, and this Snowball photo is dated [1902]. www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3219064726 The brick General Roberts Hotel was built in 1903 [date on building + confirmed in Trove call for tenders] and the license granted to Frederick Roberts in 1903, then transferred to in 1904 (name is shown on the white sign). www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3237509793 In this image, the wooden railway bridge has been removed (10 years previously), but the railway cutting can be seen on the right. www.flickr.com/photos/uon/3237509885 In case you didn't notice, I am pretty chuffed about spotting the railway embankment! LOL Cheers, Robert