There’s a few challenges in the handwriting on this postcard sent in 1906 from Newcastle to New Zealand.

Was this a postcard from one sister to another?

I purchased the letter and began tracing the family’s history, uncovering a narrative that spans continents – from the coalfields of South Wales, to the mining towns of Tennessee, and finally to Newcastle, New South Wales.

On 10 August 1944, wartime skies over Newcastle brought an unexpected emergency – not from enemy fire, but from an unpredictable storm.