Flash back to the start of 2023 when WorldPride came Down Under, when the landmark celebration to promote LGBTQIA+ rights was held in the Southern Hemisphere for the first time, painting Sydney in a rainbow of glitter and colour.
Not to miss out on the festivities, Newcastle was featured on the official event calendar, championing pride in country NSW.
Rewind 70 years, queer people living in the port-side regional centre had a very different story to tell.
Meeting in secret under fear of arrest, it's a stark reminder of the recent past and challenges still to be overcome.
Examining the past to inform the future
John Witte has been telling stories of Australia's queer history for the past 20 years.
When he moved to the Newcastle region he began volunteering, recording personal stories with the Hunter Rainbow History Group.
Formed to collect and record the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people living in the Hunter, the group is on a mission to "preserve and illuminate" their "hidden histories."
"The interviews – that is the only thing we've got to hear about other people who have lived their lives and a way forward for them," Mr Witte said.
One story he was determined to cast light on was the so-called "Yellow Socks Affair."
The incident centred on a series of arrests that occurred in Newcastle in the early 1950s of gay men.
Ten people appeared in court on charges of "abominable offences" with names published in the local newspaper.
Among these was Keith Robinson, a well-known businessman in Newcastle.
It is alleged that it was the colour of the display in his popular menswear store on Hunter Street that gave the men their name – the Yellow Socks Gang.
To record the story for posterity, Mr Witte began to investigate.
He discovered that while Keith had passed away, his partner, Kevin Coleman, was living in an aged care home in Port Macquarie.
Encouraged by the rare opportunity, he made the journey north.
"I thought, 'this is fantastic' so I asked for details and contacted Kevin," Mr Witte said.
"The interview I did with him went live on the website; it was a big commitment from Kevin to allow that to happen."
As public records become intermingled with a dash of urban legend, Mr Witte said it is important to separate fact from fiction.
"The 'Yellow Socks' is really a misnomer and Kevin is quite adamant to say that no-one wore yellow socks in 1951 or '52," he said.
"There was a network of friends, and romances happened. And then one of the lad's mothers found a love note in her son's trousers when she was doing the washing.
"She gave it to the police thinking, 'well, that'll teach them a lesson.'
"It sure did."
Mr Witte said the affair was born from a post-war "clamp-down" on homosexuality.
"It was perfect ammunition because it was an ideological war that, funnily enough, started in Newcastle and extended to Sydney," he said.
"Kevin and Keith were fearing the police knock on their door as people were letting out secrets of names.
"You only trusted your closest circle and just the fact that that trust broke down here in Newcastle was astounding."
Not just a historical exercise
It's stories like these Justin Ellis, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Newcastle, believes are imperative to highlight.
"The past informs the present and hopefully this will help clarify the process going forward," Dr Ellis said.
A Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTQIA+ hate crime deaths is investigating unsolved and suspected cases between 1970 and 2010.
Dr Ellis said of those being examined, at least five occurred in the Newcastle area.
"People from Newcastle and regional areas can see that those cases are being heard and that justice is being affected, not just in capital cities," he said.
"The whole point is, yes, we need to move forward but all of those people that were involved with those times are still going to live with those experiences.
"That's one of the benefits of the special inquiry, we can remind younger generations of what's happened."
Mr Witte agreed but said encouraging people to share their story could be difficult, even with the passing of decades.
"It's a personal thing. It's also a small town, people know each other."
Despite this, he is persisting with his charter to record oral histories.
"The Royal Commission into Human Relationships in the mid-70s was a catalyst for law reform and this will be the same again," he said.
"It provides bureaucrats and politicians with a justification to move the discussion forward."
