NEWCASTLE Industrial Heritage Association has welcomed a $5000 donation that will help turn their plans for a new memorial into reality.
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Not-for-profit private health insurer Phoenix Health Fund presented a cheque for the memorial to the Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association at the 15 year BHP Anniversary Reunion on Saturday.
Phoenix Health Fund was set up in 1953, with its clients mainly made up of employees from the steel industry, including the BHP.
Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association's Aubrey Brooks said his group had already raised more than $60,000 for the memorial, which will honour those who died in the steel making industry in Newcastle between 1915 and 1999.
The exact number of lives lost is not known but it could be as many as 200 people.
Mr Brooks runs tours of the BHP Muster Point industrial sculpture at Mayfield, which was unveiled in 1999.
He hopes the new memorial will be located close to Muster Point.
However, plans for the memorial have been held up temporarily with the long-term lease of Newcastle port, which includes 700 hectares of land surrounding it.
"This money will help out with any of the hidden costs - seating, pathways, water bubblers - that we need around the memorial," Mr Brooks said.
Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association hopes to have the new memorial ready by June 2, 2015, marking 100 years since BHP came to Newcastle.