Newnes & PORTLAND, NSW
AGRICULTURAL CENTRES grew on the backs of squatters and selectors, people came to the towns on the dreams of making a comfortable living for themselves and their families. Some towns flourished and remain today as thriving settlements along highways and rail lines, some faded away with only remnants of shops or chimney stacks on the side of the road.
Other centres had their genesis as Company towns that sprang up around an industry, whether it was timber or steel mills, coal, shale, gold and silver mines or even limestone quarries for cement. With the prospect of escaping the unemployment and poverty of the cities, people flocked to these Company towns. They thrived, creating their own demand for carpenters, plumbers, brick makers and brick layers and boilermakers just to name a few. Sometimes
