T & G Mutual Life Assurance Society - Then and Now
As you can see in this 'then and now' photo the T & G Mutual Life Assurance Society building hasn't changed much in the last 140 years. The T & G stood for Temperance and General.
Sadly the small building directly in front of the T & G in the 'then' photo didn't fare so well. It was damaged in the 1989 earthquake and had to be completely demolished.
Immensely interesting. Love the old tram, too. I hope there's one of those in a museum somewhere. My Dad had a tray truck like that one. Family and friends would sit on the back, legs dangling, and drive into the bush for a picnic. Broken Hill Days.
Great architecture nice to see its remained the same over the years, what an interesting comparison Babs great idea for a theme, must have been devastating for the city and its people in 1989:)
How wonderful that it is pretty much the same, even the little balcony is still there - rather curious as to why that window is the only one that has one... Plus I see (in the older picture) that the building next to it has only one balcony too, how strange. Lovely to see the tram as well.
What an interesting before and after shot - there is practically no difference and as you say, this building has fared so well over the years which is good to see. Very little sign of wear and tear.
@ethelperry Nice Memories Ethel. Do you come from Broken Hill? A good friend of ours was born there 84 years ago. He has lots of stories. Don't know if you know the McMahon family.
@merrelyn I don't think the new concrete buildings have any where the same character as these old buildings. Newcastle is slowly being replaced with the concrete jungle structures.
@maskerade No we don't have trams at the moment. The rail line from Wickham to Newcastle was closed in December 2014 because it disrupted the traffic where the rail lines crossed the roads. They are now going to replace it with a light rail (tram) service, also from Wickham to Newcastle at a cost of over $200 million that will travel almost the same route and apparently will still disrupt the traffic. There's progress for you.
