“No evictions Platts Estate dwellings”

October 28. Article published “No evictions Platts Estate dwellings” from Newcastle Morning Herald, p2. These articles describe a “blacks camp” in Waratah near the expanding populated area of Newcastle and debates surrounding its removal or continuance. The land on which Platt’s Estate is located formed part of the original Australian Agricultural Company estate (probably since first settlement in the early 1800s) and fronts directly onto the Hunter River. Mangrove Road and Island Ferry Road run through it. It was subdivided for development in 1929 but by this time and into the 1950s, Platt’s estate is still a “humpie” town or “black shanty town”. An inspection by health and lands officials in 1954 is most probably driven by a desire to close such “black camps” on the periphery of a modern industrial city. (Newcastle Morning Herald p.2)