The world's biggest solar power station is planned to be built at ... wait for it ... Newcastle Waters Station.
The station is a beef operation on a property in the Northern Territory that covers more than a million hectares between Alice Springs and Darwin.
Kerry Packer used to own the property. He once sent his son James to work there for a year as a jackaroo after he left school - probably to toughen the lad up.
The Australian reported a few years back that Packer built a homestead there and installed two giant satellite dishes, providing an "advertising-free feed of his own channel as well as the Seven and Ten networks".
The Newcastle Waters land was also home to "north Australia's first aerodrome" in the 1930s, providing a place for Qantas jets to refuel on their way to London.
As for the solar power station, it'll be part of the $20 billion Sun Cable project - which will use 12,000 hectares of the land for a 10-gigawatt farm of solar panels.
Solar power is planned to be sent to Singapore using a high-voltage, 3000-kilometre underwater cable as an alternative to "the export business of coal, iron ore and gas".
The Sun Cable's investors include tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and mining magnate Andrew Forrest.
Mr Cannon-Brookes, the Atlassian co-founder, said last year that Sun Cable seemed like a "completely batshit insane project", but the "engineering checks out".
If the project proceeds, it will become the world's biggest solar farm and supply up to 20 per cent of Singapore's electricity.
And what about that name, Newcastle Waters? Well, apparently it was named after the Duke of Newcastle, a British politician who was "secretary for the colonies".
From what we can gather, his name was Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, who was the fifth duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne.
We're not sure if any plums grow at Newcastle Waters Station, but we're pretty sure old boy Henry spoke with one in his mouth.
Keith's Kitchen
Charlestown's Anna Adnum says her boyfriend in 1961 took her to Keith's Kitchen in Pacific Street on their second date.
"I'd never tasted a hamburger in my life, coming from Ukraine. I was just 20, I think," Anna said.
"On the first date, he took me to see the Canadian hell drivers at Newcastle Showground."
Her date's name was Brian Adnum. As you can tell by their surnames, the couple married.
"Don't you reckon he was a romantic man?" Anna quipped, referring to the location of their first two dates.
Meanwhile, some further light has been shed on whether there was a Keith's Kitchen in Hunter Street.
Hamilton's Jeff McTaggart, who asked readers for help on the matter, accepts that Keith's Kitchen was in Pacific Street.
But he said there was another hamburger shop in Hunter Street, "three doors up" from the corner of Pacific Street. He wonders whether that, too, was named Keith's Kitchen.
Margaret Cholipski said her dad, Ron Bastian, had the lease for Keith's Kitchen in Pacific Street.
She said Joe and Thora Wellings took over the lease in Pacific Street and her dad "bought a shop in Hunter Street just around the corner".
"It was probably three or four shops down from Pacific Street. I don't remember what it was called."
- topics@newcastleherald.com.au
