A twist of fate saved Birgitte Hansen when the Newcastle earthquake struck.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The artist had been commissioned to work on a mural for Newcastle Workers Club.
"I wanted to start before Christmas but they said wait till the new year," she said.
"If I had my way, I would have been in the basement of the club when the earthquake hit."
The quake destroyed the club's building and basement.
"That is where the most lives were lost," Birgitte said.
When the earthquake struck, Birgitte said time became warped.
Her house moved. There was noise.
"We thought BHP had blown up, as we lived in Carrington and could see the smoke from their site," she said.
"We spent the day looking for a friend's family member. After hearing what had happened, we made our way to the workers club.
"I had worked there and been affiliated for many years with the building and organisation."
The Newcastle Herald later commissioned Birgitte to paint a picture for its one-year anniversary coverage of the earthquake.
"I started the design and found I could not stop as it fell together into the final work," she said.
She had access to the Herald's photos to gain inspiration and subject matter for the painting.
The real faces in the painting include victims, rescuers, building workers and civilians.
She said her painting sought to depict that the earthquake "brought us together as a community".
"I felt very special to be asked and not many times does such an opportunity arise," she said.
The Herald reported at the time that Birgitte's painting reflected the "tragedy and heroism" of the day of the earthquake and the city's subsequent revival.
Birgitte was reported as saying back then that she hoped her painting would be "a memorial that will survive when memories of the disaster have faded".
Quake T-shirt
Chris Prince sent us a picture of an earthquake-themed T-shirt from way back in the day.
It's emblazoned with the words "Newcastle Taken A Shaken".
It even includes the date and time of the quake - Thursday, December 28, 1989 at 10.27am.
It's quite the souvenir.
'We'll all be rooned'
On Christmas Eve, we reported on Bob "Minmi Magster" Skelton's rain poem.
In the poem, the Magster called on old Hughie the weather god to bring some rain.
We spoke to the Magster on Boxing Day.
Magster: "Doesn't look like it worked. We didn't get any rain."
Topics: "Give it time, mate. Besides, we heard Ballina got some decent rain. Old Hughie was just a bit off the mark."
Charlestown's Laurie Bowman pointed us towards John O'Brien's 1919 poem, titled Said Hanrahan.
The poem depicts Australia's cycle of droughts, floods and bushfires in rural Australia as seen by Hanrahan.
Hanrahan is a bit of a pessimist. "We'll all be rooned [ruined]," he likes to say.
Here's part of the famous ode.
We'll all be rooned, said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.
The congregation stood about,
Coat collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought, as it had done for years.
It's lookin' crook, said Daniel Croke,
Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad.
It's dry, all right, said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.
And so around the chorus ran
It's keepin' dry, no doubt
We'll all be rooned, said Hanrahan,
Before the year is out.
The crops are done, ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain
From here way out to back o' Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.