ABC NewcastleCast

Newcastle's Ray Baartz was like the rest of us this morning - glued to the TV to watch the Socceroos gain a place in the World Cup in Qatar later this year. For Ray, it all started 48 years ago when him and his fellow Socceroos went to the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, playing against superstars of the game like Pele.

And if you grew up in Newy - there's probably a red hot chance you've busted some moves to 'Star Struck', the iconic Newcastle school kids concert performance. This year, this legend of Newcastle turns the big 3-0 and organisers are ready for a big return to the stage.

At the Festival of the Fleece, sheep are thundering down the main street of Merriwa. But what's the story behind their cute little socks? Meanwhile, over in the Barrington Tops, devils are mating... Tasmanian devils in a program to save the species.

Newcastle parking is atrocious. Will a plan to turn a Cardiff street into less parking to get more people make us rethink the way we move around the city? And after all this rain, gravediggers at Sandgate are struggling to make our final resting place peaceful

The fight to help locals get out of their car and into accommodation is the big fight of ‘Our Back Yard’, a group dedicated to helping the homeless in the Hunter. Can you believe it's been 15 years since the Pasha Bulker ended up on Nobby's beach?! But it's not the only historical event to happen in the Hunter on this day. And a Newy boy turned ice hockey star is ready to take the ice for Australia…in Mexico.

A Hunter families heartbreak as they waited for an ambulance. Will wait times be fixed by more NSW health staff announced by the NSW government this week? Remember the pet boom of 2020? It’s come back to the local pounds, with a band of rescuers working to find new homes and a farmer in Gloucester is taking to the skies to get his pasture planted.

The Hunter is getting a specialist centre for hearing impaired children, one man clocks up the k’s for the climate and former Newcastle soprano celebrates the Queen in Windsor.

New volunteer run wholefoods coop for Dungog, classroom ventilation stopping kids from spreading winter germs, and starmaker Max Jackson puts the Newy in Nashville.

A local power station is running short of coal, while Mt Pleasant coal mine extends to find more, uni students set sail to scope out underwater landslides, and premiership winner Hannah Southwell returns home to the Knights

Local women teaching kids consent workshops, new techniques developed to destroy PFAS, and swimmers celebrate the start of winter with an icy dip in the Merewether baths.

The hunter is reeling from last night's wild weather, and Newy's pinball wizards unite for ten years of Pinfest