IT'S the photo that's followed them, a memorable image of the last days of the Newcastle steelworks, for 20 years.
Jason and Renae Jenkins, who both worked at BHP and met on the job three years previously, became a symbol of hope at closure time.
They had booked their wedding the year before, planning to be back from their honeymoon before the final day. Those plans were upended, however, when the date was moved forward to September 30.
Wanting to be back in time for the historic march out, they cut their honeymoon short and flew back home with a couple of days to spare.
The Newcastle Herald met them on the 28th, and when we found the big hook lying on its side in the eerily silent plant, photographer Simone De Peak knew she had her backdrop.
Today's photograph was shot at Newcastle Museum, with a smaller set of dual hooks, joined by a horizontal bar, that Jason thinks was used to tilt the basic oxygen steelmaking or BOS ladle lifted by the hook in the 1999 photo.
At closure time, Renae was 21, half-way through a seven-year chemical engineering cadetship and one of about 30 cadets BHP agreed to keep on in the mills. Jason, 29, was an electrician with an engineering certificate who had begun his apprenticeship at the plant in 1989 but was now resigned to looking for work come closure day.
A week before their wedding, though, Jason was offered a six month stint at the mills, which were re-branded as OneSteel in 2001. He's still there, enjoying his work and helping run the the electrical social club.
Renae shifted to the coal industry for a while before moving back to OneSteel until 2013. The Herald caught up with the couple a year after the closure, and then again in 2002, 2006, 2009 and 2015. Along the way, they've become parents to two boys, Michael, 11, and Lachlan, 9.
Renae says the original photograph has become something of a family talking point, and that people recognise them from time to time as "the two that were in that BHP picture".
Both say the impending closure anniversary has brought back memories of that time, and of a workplace that Jason says "had such a profound impact on so many people in so many ways".
"I drive past the fence now at work and there's the fuel farm and the wind turbines on the ground and that's it, just the grass and the river."
- BHP Reunion: Today, Saturday, Carrington Bowling Club, 12pm to 5pm
- BHP history tours:Tomorrow andand Monday, Selwyn Street entrance off Industrial Drive, 11am to 3pm both days
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20th Anniversary Closure Ceremony: Monday, 11am, Muster Point, Selwyn Street carpark
THE STORY SO FAR
