The University Library holds audio cassette tapes containing interviews of local people, which were collected around the 1980's period. Many of these have been digitised and are available for viewing on this site. In addition to this, in the past decade, new interviews have been added to the collection through community projects, such as The Store Oral History Project.
The largest oral history archive we hold is the Voices of the Hunter Collection, which contains over 800 recordings.
During the 1970s and 1980s, eminent local historian John W. (Jack) Delaney recorded many interviews of people from the coalfields area of the Hunter Valley. These interviews were recorded on audio cassette tapes which were held by the Coalfields Local History Association Inc who worked with us to digitise these tapes and to make them available to the world.
These oral histories can be browsed by topic including women's lives, wine growing, mining, retail, education, sports, and transport.
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.
The Engineers Australia Oral History Archive, with over 50 interviews in total, contains stories associated with engineering and engineers who have worked in the Hunter Region.
The Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES) was established in 1971. Since then the Society has provided an ongoing and vital umbrella for the creation and sharing of research in the field of educational history in Australia, New Zealand and beyond. This oral history collection contains 27 interviews with current and former members of ANZHES who discuss their research and teaching in the history of education.
The Store Oral History Project is a collection of stories gathered from members of the Newcastle community in 2019, sharing their thoughts and memories of the Store. We thank all of the interviewees and those who have contributed in other ways, such as sharing photographs and other sources and memorabilia.
These oral histories provide an insight into LGBTIQ+ life in Newcastle from the 1930s until today. Alternatively visit our collection of photographs to see how hese oral histories fit into broader LGBTIQ+ history.
