What is truly remarkable about visiting Nobbys-Whibayganba is not what you see when you get there but what you see looking back. It is the view. It would be a breathtaking experience for anyone but a potentially life-changing experience for someone who has grown up in its gaze. It’s like seeing your hometown for the first time, as if you’ve stepped out of the picture and stepped back to take in all its glory.
Looking back at the town, you realise that it’s not Nobbys that is the attraction here; it is Newcastle itself.
It is truly one of the best views in Australia, and one of the most amazing city vistas you could expect to see. It’s all there, almost every element of the Australian experience at one glance: the sea, the harbour, the beach, the foreshore, the industry, the country, the city, the suburbs, the mountains, the valley. But at your feet is the jewel of it all, the suburb I live in, also called Newcastle.
Nobbys-Whibayganba houses Lighthouse Arts Newcastle and now offers studio spaces to artists-in-residence.
In November 2021, a band of artists, writers, and musicians like myself took up office space in this grand setting. It’s a tremendous privilege to revisit this place as part of my own path and my own work.
[The site] still offers an expansive vista, but now it also offers a bunch of visionary artists a new view of their work and the potential of the city at their feet.
