The Tomaree Coastal Walk at Boat Harbour within the Tomaree National Park. Photo: D Parsons, DCCEEW. The Worimi Conservation Lands. Photo: E McGauley, DCCEEW. NATIONAL Parks in the Hunter-Central Coast region attracted 8.1 million visits in the 2024-25 financial year, up from five million in 2022.  This accounts for 12.4 percent of all national park […]

PORT STEPHENS residents are invited to register as a volunteer and help protect dolphins by taking part in the first statewide Dolphin Census on Saturday 30 May. The one-day census is a collaboration between Dolphin Research Australia and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to create a statewide snapshot of where dolphins are found […]

THIS is part two of a multi-story series on the “Dawn”, a boat which holds a special place in the history of commercial fishing in Port Stephens. Visit portstephens.newsofthearea.com.au/printed-edition-16-april-2026 to read part one, or grab a copy of last week’s paper. WITHOUT Archie Thompson’s knowledge Ted Johansson quit, leaving the boat under the control of […]

HUNTER-BASED sailor and death doula Ruth Boydell has released a memoir, “Rocking the Boat: A Life in Three Voyages”, outlining global ocean adventures in the days before GPS and chartplotters. Ruth’s story begins at the age of 17, when she joined a thirty-something Englishman who was single-handing a sailboat around the world. The adventures came […]

IT’S time for people across the Hunter to nominate family, friends or work mates for the 2026 NSW Volunteer of the Year Awards, to help celebrate the enormous positive impact of volunteers across the state. The awards are in their 20th year and are run by The Centre for Volunteering to recognise the outstanding work […]

IT was 1865 when a lone seaman on board a Norwegian sailing ship jumped off the deck onto the wharf in Stockton and ran from the authorities. The illegal immigrant changed his name and became known as Captain Henry Thompson – so beginning the long line of Thompsons, a family who have made a major […]