So, it was with some mild surprise the other day I realised, while driving over the landmark Stockton Bridge, that it's soon going to celebrate a significant milestone.

For late next year, on November 1, our graceful, iconic bridge linking Newcastle city to Port Stephens district will be 50 years old.

Our vital bridge link opened back in November 1971. At one stroke it ended the frustratingly long traffic queues on both sides of the port as cars and trucks waited to catch one of the hard-working government vehicular ferries across the waterway.

Of course, the sting in the tail of this modern progress was that these familiar port "punts" were terminated at the same time. For love 'em or hate 'em, they had been a vital part of transport across Newcastle Harbour for 55 years and would be sorely missed by many, despite traffic delays often being a major inconvenience. But more about the punts later.

When opened 49 years ago this month, the new Stockton Bridge was an engineering marvel, second only at the time to Sydney's Harbour Bridge, according to then NSW Premier Bob Askin. Costing some $6.5 million dollars to build with 3100 tonnes of steel and 23,000 cubic yards of concrete, the opening of the bridge at the eastern end of Kooragang Island really did herald in a new era of transport. For even the most ardent supporters of the old vehicular ferries had to admit they had well and truly had their day by the time the new bridge opened.

Our few surviving port ferries were very old, needing constant patching up to continue operating. It was pretty obvious the ageing punts soon couldn't handle the predicted future volumes of daily traffic involved. And in time, the predictions all came true. On peak days in early 1971 almost 5000 vehicles used the ferry service crossing the port. But some 17 years later, in 1988, Stockton Bridge was carrying about 14,700 vehicles daily, or almost three times the amount when it first opened for business.

The then Department of Main Roads (or DMR) which had erected the structure estimated the more efficient bridge would save $750,000 a year in costs. This involved the regular maintenance on the three surviving DMR ferries still in use. The regular 12-month overhauls on the car ferries each took six to eight weeks to complete. Workers also claimed the rapidly ageing vessels were riddled with rust.

Meanwhile, the new bridge opened up the rapidly growing, new industrial suburb of Kooragang, created from dumping harbour spoil to join up several estuary islands into one big land mass, now best known perhaps for its major coal stockpiles and export terminals.

Construction of the new concrete bridge spanning the Hunter River's north arm to link Newcastle with Stockton began in 1968. When completed, the DMR reported the bridge was 3358 foot (1023 metres) long with eight approach spans on each side of the river and seven main spans across the river itself.

The central span was 270 foot (82 metres) long with 100 foot (30 metres) vertical clearance (in the middle) for ships travelling upriver to Hexham to take on coal cargoes. But soon after, this coal trade involving small colliers called 60-Milers (being the sea distance to Sydney) ceased.

The bridge was put together using a spiderweb of pre-cast concrete box girders aided by 600 tonnes of high tensile steel, plus 2500 tonnes of steel reinforcing. Well before that, the bridge pillars to support the bridge structure and constant road traffic were driven up to 140 foot (42.6 metres) into rock deep below. Before the punts were withdrawn, however, each punt could carry about 30 vehicles per trip. The 24-hour service lasted from 1916 to 1971.

And what was it like having your car ferried across the harbour on those eight-minute trips? Well, the popular punts with their orange, sooty smokestacks were very noisy, vibrated and were full of clanking sounds with black plumes of smoke trailing behind as the vessels glided across the harbour.

Sadly, the port's three retired punts ended up destroyed on the north coast while being towed to the Philippines in January 1972.

The steam-powered punts were a true relic of a bygone age. Today's rare scene of Newcastle Harbour in 1960 shows the punt Lurgurena en-route to Stockton from its Wharf Road berth. In the foreground is the long-gone Perkins Street boat harbour.

Today's artwork here by Peter Lewis, for a once proposed book ages ago, shows a sweaty fireman feeding a furnace on a vehicular ferry before its demise.

Master storyteller Jim Haynes has his own spin on ye old days in his latest book - and it's a ripper.

In his Adventurers, Pioneers and Misfits, Haynes retells some incredible true-life yarns of some historic Aussies who were fascinating, feisty or flawed. Or perhaps all three. For example, there's Australian swimming superstar Annette Kellerman (1886-1975) who early on developed the disease rickets, forcing her to wear heavy leg braces. Despite this, she became the highest paid act on the American vaudeville circuit and the star of the first ever million-dollar movie. Yet, by the 1960s and '70s, and back in Australia, she was almost completely forgotten.

Then there's the colourful convict Thomas Barrett. An ingenious counterfeiter, Barrett made coins out of belt buckles, metal buttons and pewter spoons. His major achievement was creating a small, silver artefact, today valued at $1 million. He was also the first man to be hanged in colonial Australia (for stealing food) after being sentenced to death three separate times.

Then there's the young "sex mad' Percy Grainger, our eccentric musical genius whose talent was greatly admired by the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The flamboyant, flaming red-haired Grainger became a concert pianist, famous for his odd musical arrangements, including one requiring 27 pianos or 30 guitars. Grainger was also known to push his favourite piano stool between concert venues in a wheelbarrow. He lived mostly on fruit and nuts and made his own clothes from towelling which he never ironed. He was reputed to have been picked up for vagrancy in New York when he was actually Professor of Music at the university there.

The book contains lots more bizarre tales and quirky backstories from brewer James Squire to pioneer Aussie aviator Harry Houdini and explorer Matthew Flinders - the man who named Australia - but who was inspired to go to sea after reading Robinson Crusoe. Highly entertaining. The book is published by Allen Unwin, RRP $29.99.