Tighes Hill

 This tiny village of about 2000 people is one of Newcastle's better known suburbs. 

Centered on a hill, clearly bounded to the south by Throsby and Styx creeks, a rail corridor north-west, and an inner-city highway north and east, it yet seems to merge imperceptibly with neighbouring subburbs of Mayfield, Maryville and Islington.

There is far more to it than the population suggests, which can be found in this walking tour and history map brochure from Mercy Services (links to a PDF document), and an overview here in Wikipedia. 

Despite limited surfaces inviting street art, let alone graffiti, this small locality has a disproportionate amount of artwork - courtesy, largely, of the TAFE sports field: a serial collection on a free-standing brick wall. And the lane behind 161 Maitland Road, formerly Beaurepaire Tyre Service, latterly Nova Air. 

April 2012.
Above: Elizabeth Street stretches east from Maitland Road.
Below: The Royal Oak Hotel at 207 Maitland Road and nearby shops, featured further below.

 So, here we go with some street art. 

161 Maitland Road

The lane behind 161 Maitland Rd is a haven of artful graffiti. Under, apparently, the 'TUNS' franchise :0) "Ink runs is like Newcastle without TUNS!" :) ~ if a reader could kindly explain what TUNS (TUNZ) is about in the comments section below.

According to signage, what follows is a community project.

This nameless lane runs south to north with another lane connecting its mid point eastward to Union Street. Above is the southern entry in Tighes Terrace. What follows are the works as we progress toward Bryant Street.

Below (and visible above): Some sort of wall of fame or noticeboard (?) for your consideration:

Above: At this point, half way along, we turn away from the wall and look up "lane B" Regardez vous the shoe installation at right. I didn't notice it at the time, which is a pity.

Below: It's not all plain sailing. Often there's no way around cars when they cramp the angle, or force the camera too close to artwork.

Above: The poor attempt at panorama doesn't do this great piece justice. In defence, the wall runs uphill while changing height and the camera was a little fixed zoom cheapie. Still, better than no picture at all !
Below: Emerging in Bryant Street, a look back. In the distance, at right, are Tighes Hill TAFE campus buildings. And, yes, it was an absolutely beautiful mid-winter day.

173 Maitland Road

This property has some history. Throsby's favourite shop, visited far too often on the way home from work: a still sorely-missed Dick Smith Electronics store, long and sadly gone. A restaurant/coffee house occupies that Bryant Street corner, while an adjacent section was briefly Rice's Bookshop after it vacated Hunter Street West (near the Bank Corner), but has since moved into Beaumont Street. Rice's was, btw, many decades before, the equally popular Mann's Bookshop which moved mid last century to the Hunter Street West shop from its King Street premises opposite the cathedral grounds.

Below: September 2009 view of Maitland Road approaching from Throsby Creek bridge. Dick Smith is still operating (yellow facade) and Beaurepaire Tyres (blue, in distance) has recently closed. The damp roadway has a bluish tint from the early morning sky. It was indeed that colour to the eye.

Above and next four images below. 173 Maitland Road, formerly Dick Smith Electronics in September 2009.

Above: Rear of 173 Maitland Road in 2009.
Below: In June 2024 had a quick look at surviving work along the Bryant Street side. As always, crowded with vehicles, making a decent capture difficult from the narrow footpath.

Below: A little lens flare from that sun... we'll call artistic effect.

28 Elizabeth Street

December 2023. Above and below: On the side wall of 28 Elizabeth Street is a now rather famous work that entertains the patrons of Praise Joe 'urban pantry' opposite. Early morning is not the best time for this sort of photography. Or into the sun. Or garbage day.

197 to 203 Maitland Road

Above: September 2009 artwork on 203 at left. The premises then, and still are (2024), listed as Impromptu Music.

Above and below: No. 203 in 2023. Impromptu has gone incognito :)

Below: The shop at 197-199 has met it's fate in 2012...

Above and below: Although by 2023 No. 197 has had a makeover.

Before we leave the commercial strip and poke around the TAFE, some views from near the railway bridge leading to Mayfield.

Above: The northern side in December 2023.
Below: The southern side in October 2006 (!)

Above: No. 2B Henry Street in October 2006 before the townhouses were built at 2A (where Ferndale and Henry streets meet Maitland Road). Former site of Tighes Hill fire station damaged in the '89 earthquake, it was sold for $150,000 in the '90s.

Technical College aka TAFE

Though known as “Tighes Hill TAFE” and within the zone of that suburb, it always felt like part of Islington, and indeed was originally deemed to be on land termed “Islington West” where once mining and brickworks operated.

For Tighes Hill to have ever claimed territory south of the creek seems, to Throsby, nothing more or less than effrontery of hillock pillocks.

Newcastle Technical College concept art in 1938 by an art teacher, R.G. Russom.

On 11^th March, 1936, Minister for Education, Mr. D.H. Drummond, stated 20 acres (9 hectares) at "Islington West" was the new site for Newcastle Technical College. The land was gifted by money for its purchase by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP).

The original technical college at Wood Street was rejected as the site for further building due to limited acreage and crowding. Likely due to rapid growth of industry and population, the Wood Street campus survives to this day.

When, in the 1950s, the idea was afoot for a Newcastle University, a suggestion was 100 acres of land on high ground near what is now Warrabrook – formerly Newcastle Abattoir and its holding stock yards, those grassless fields with forlorn flocks of ovines and bovines.

Brief history of Newcastle Technical College is here. And also here.

Below: Wide angle view of TAFE campus with Maitland Road in foreground.

The Tighes Hill campus provided a formidable array of instruction, from shipbuilding to wool classing, then to modern electronics - such colour television and other modern trades - late last century. In 1959 it became a shared site when The University Building was opened, and long-deprived pleasures of intellectual snobbery were at last offered to regional youth.

Newcastle was on a course to greater sophistication, although the young "uni" pretenders would struggle to, but never quite, overcome their proletariat tendencies or provincial lowliness, nor escape the gentle scorn of their working class parents!

In 1965 Newcastle University Shortland campus was opened and by 1971 university activities had ceased at the Tighes Hill site. 

In 1974 the technical education system became the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) we all know. 

And so it goes, down the years…

Below: Graffiti covers the walls of a small industrial subdivision on the other side of Styx Creek, from the TAFE's park-like grounds. At far left the bridge is Maitland Road crossing Styx Creek near its junction with Throsby Creek.

TAFE Sports Field

Once a small swampy island in Throsby Creek, infill created a sporting ground north east of the TAFE campus. A section of brick wall placed at one end (for some purpose lost on me) has been a superb canvas for the decade during which Throsby visited, and most of its decorations were captured and appear below.

November 2004

October 2005

October 2006

December 2007

March 2012 (Timestamped 2009 but suspect camera calendar wrong on the day)

July 2013 ~ AMFS appears, here and around town.

June 2014

December 2023 ~ A tattered AMFS that has almost been obliterated with age and scribblings is on the other side. On the car park side, however...

Scholey Street bridge

This rail overpass joins the southern corner of Mayfield to Islington at the 'back door' of the TAFE campus. It's long been an active graffiti canvas, as is the nearby sound-deadening walls that border the rail corridor, where kilometer-long 24-hour coal trains ply between the Hunter Valley and Port Waratah's Selwyn Street coal loader. There is far more to be seen than the few samples that follow.

December 2007. Above: Girling Street feeds the eastern side of the bridge.
Below: View of the rail junction from the old bridge.

Below: Again, in 2024.

Above: December 2007, viewed north east from the old bridge, partially visible at left. It was replaced with a massive concrete structure (shown below) with more generous curves, bike and pedestrian lanes, and a bonus wire screen on which to clamp lovelocks!.

Not to mention, so we must, endless square metres of fresh grey surfaces to scribble on. Paradise.

Above: Not forgetting the underside.
Below: Or the retaining wall beside the TAFE car park and south-west entrance, along with the eternal job of sanitising it.

Which concludes, for now, our tour of Tiger's Hill - btw, 'Tigers' was a nickname coined and used probably by the younger set of non-residents back in the day. Do let us know if there's more to it.