The Town Hall is lighted by three magnificent crystal chandeliers bearing 14 gas jets, and imported from the famous house of Ossler and Co., Birmingham, at a cost of £230. (Cornwall Chronicle, Oct. 27 1866) a When Hobart Town Hall was completed in 1866 it symbolized the
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A stump does not have to symbolize the end of a tree’s usefulness. Tiny, insect eating birds such as wrens and robins often choose one as a low level look-out post. Meanwhile I have fun with stumps as ‘garden art’. That variegated rhodo hat would not look
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In 1875 a Tasmanian devil left Hobart aboard the American ship Swatara, bound for San Francisco Bay. I was fascinated, and very moved by the background story. In the 19th century the USS Swatara was involved in transporting scientific parties to the South Pacific, to observe the
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PERILS OF THE CHARLESTON When the ‘flappers’ of the1920s took up the exuberant Charleston, a London medico declared the new dance craze a risk to life and limb. Writing in the Daily Graphic in 1926 he said; Women are the chief victims of the Charleston, for the
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In 1938 the bakery at Parramatta gaol was operated by ‘trusties’. These were well behaved men who had completed their initial sentence, but as habitual offenders were serving a final, indeterminate period. Freedom was not far off, conditional only on their continued adherence to prison rules. The
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Seven year old Mavis Hallcroft was woken just before dawn one November morning by a heavy weight on her bed and a large, rough tongue licking her face. She called out, ‘Mum!..Mum, there’s a big dog on my bed. ‘ Mavis’ bed was on the verandah of
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Joe Vial was a child prodigy, amazing audiences with his violin performances from a very young age. He was often featured in the local newspaper; ‘Last but not least was the youthful Joe Vial, who executed a number of violin solos with a perfection of tone and
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A visitor appeared at our studio door in the Blue Mountains recently; a delightful, brown cuckoo dove. We know him quite well. During heavy rain, he likes to shelter here in the garage. Hearing him outside the Studio door was a bit unexpected though. My partner Rob
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‘The Shadow’ was Francis (Frank) Maurice Fahy (1897-1978) one of Sydney’s first and most successful undercover police officers. He operated from the 1920s until his retirement thirty years later. Access to his scrapbook at the Library of NSW is still heavily restricted due to the sensitive nature
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A swindler often goes by many names and when a Sydney crook with a nefarious plan turned up in Hobart in January 1870, he was calling himself Alexander Lambert. He booked in at the The Rock Hotel in Elizabeth Street. After a couple of weeks he departed,
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