History and Trevor Dickinson go hand in hand.
So it seems quite appropriate that the Newcastle illustrator would end up making a book loaded with nearly 50 illustrations of Wallsend to celebrate that suburb's 150 years since it was incorporated as a municipality.
The Book of Wallsend has arrived just in time, with Dickinson ready to sell copies at the Wallsend Community Fun Day on Saturday, August 17, from 1pm to 9pm along Nelson Street and Wallsend Skate Park.
The book idea was hatched when Dickinson was commissioned to create a mural celebrating the town's history for the Wallsend Village Shopping Centre. That 15-metre long mural, printed on vinyl and positioned inside the shopping centre, was completed in May.
It was the groundwork for that mural which got Dickinson excited about creating drawings of the many landmarks around the town.
"I did things that appealed to me," he said. "There were quite a few I would have liked to do, but I had a deadline for the mural. So many came later, like the Lemon Tree Hotel and Racecourse Hotel."
"Once I started doing it, I really enjoyed it," he said.
For starters, it was only a 10-minute drive from his New Lambton home to Wallsend. He brought a "loose" touch, much like his early illustrations, to the project, and completed many of the drawings in a single day.
As each one was completed, he shared it on the Wallsend Then and Now Facebook group's page, where they generated a great response. In the book, every illustration has a caption, most of them culled from the Facebook page, with the permission of the person who posted the comment.
"There are some fantastic, and sometimes hilarious, quotes," Dickinson said in the foreword of the book. "They help liven up the pictures."
Among the structures and signs featured - all subject to the quirky whims of Dickinson's cartoonish-but-realistic style are the Rotunda, the town's greeting sign ("The place to be"), the 1921 fire station, several churches (including the distinctive Seventh Day Adventist building), the Colliery Inn, the Masonic Centrel, al-Madina butcher and grocery on Thomas Street, a duck-crossing sign on Spargo Lane, the glorious old building housing Heng Loong Chinese restaurant, and the Diggers Carpark on Charles Street.
"I really specifically wanted the Wallsend that people live in, that they see every day," he said.
Dickinson's personal favourite: the eclectic house with the steel framework on Gunambi Street ("Kenny's Dream).
"I went to visit the person there," Dickinson said. "It was exactly how her husband designed it... It has amazing views. Half the comments, people loved it. Half the comments, people hated it."
The images present a "snapshot of this moment" in history, he said.
The book is a signed and numbered edition of 500; half have sold by pre-order. Besides the community fun day on August 17, Dickinson will be selling copies on Saturday, August 24, in front of his mural in the Wallsend Village Shopping Centre.
Dickinson has published illustration books based on Newcastle, Taree and Canberra, as well as one on Canberra bus shelters.
