Sir,
Once again Mike Scanlon has pulled the heart strings of the “Men and Women of Steel” who helped this build this great city we call Newcastle.
When I take visitors to the Muster Point on the BHP site, I often hear the comment “Remember When” and then the stories begin to flow.
Employees records show that in 1922, 840 worked on that site and produced 223.525 tonnes of Raw Steel, when I started there in 1961, 10.964 were employed by the company and that did not include contractors (Brambles etc) Raw Steel Tonnes were at 1.332.969 tonnes.
1982 saw 10.668 employees on site and 2.158.612 Raw Steel tonnes produced.
In 2015 the Newcastle Industrial Association hopes to unveil a Memorial to those who lost their lives on the plant, where the people of Newcastle can go and reflect on the
Steel Industry and the thousands of Novocastrians who worked there.
Yes, David Baker may have been the man who forged a city but it was the “Men and Women of Steel” who kept the fire alight for decades.
The BHP in Newcastle is gone forever but these stories must be preserved forever, I congratulate the Herald and Mike Scanlon for making this possible again.
Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association
http://www.niha.org.au/article.php/20130412092436238