Growing up in Newcastle in the 1970’s, BHP was the biggest employer in the area. BHP opened in Newcastle in 1915 and closed it’s doors forever on the 30th September, 1999. At one stage, BHP employed 1 in 10 people in Newcastle. Everyone knew someone who worked there. No-one could imagine life in Newcastle without the BHP. However, 84 years later, the blast furnaces stopped. And Newcastle lost the smog and pollution almost immediately.
Last September, Newcastle celebrated the 20th anniversary of the closure of BHP with a special weekend. To celebrate we were able to visit The Muster Point. A memorial sculpture made of steel and bronze, 8 metres wide and 12 metres high completed just before the BHP closed it’s doors. On top of the sculpture is a cross to honour the lives lost over the years, in what was a very dangerous workplace.
Also at The Muster Point was one of BHP’s old managers. He was there to meet and greet old employees and others coming together to remember and celebrate all things Newcastle steelworks. His stories told of life working at BHP during those times. And he explained that for many of the employees, BHP was part of their family and sometimes their only family. For this reason, it was important to look out for the welfare of his staff. An example he used was arranging reading and writing lessons for some of the workers when he realised that they couldn’t do either. These were the little things that those of us who hadn’t worked at Big Harry’s Place ( the local nickname), had never considered.
We also visited Delprat’s cottage, which was built on site so Guillaume Deprat could supervise the steelworks construction even when he was home. The heritage society has done a great job creating a museum during the renovations. They are attempting to recreate the cottage as close as possible to the original building.
Delprat was a big fan of body strength. On of his favourite ways to exercise and improve his strength was with gymnastic rings. To ensure he could always exercise, he had a set of gymnastics ring hung in his bedroom. This allowed him to do two jobs at once – practise his moves and supervise his steelworks.
