November 1919 – WWI has ended, the flu epidemic has eased, and 110,000 people turn out for race day at Flemington; the nation stopping Melbourne Cup From the Adelaide Observer, November 8 1919); ‘One of Australia’s best assets is the horse. Like the call of the bush,
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Constance Dickens (nee Desailly) was the wife of Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, affectionately dubbed Plorn by his father, the author Charles Dickens. Plorn was a contraction of a much longer ‘nonsense’ nickname. The pair married on July 7 1880 at the Desailly residence in outback Wilcannia, New
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Imagine Agatha Christie needing an introduction. 😎 The following article appeared below a small photo of her in Sydney’s Evening News a century ago. (1922). Wife of Colonel Christie, a member of the British Empire Mission at present travelling through Australia to spread the details
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After making his fortune through a wine and spirit business in Sydney’s Pitt Street, Archibald Thompson J.P. bought a harbourside mansion at Potts Point called Clopee. The home had been built by John Solomon in 1858. At the time of the events in this story, Archibald and
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In the 1890s it was decided to ‘dress up’ Sydney’s Centennial Park with monuments of eminent people. One choice was a full size, marble statue of novelist Charles Dickens. However, there was a major problem, as M.P Mr J.D. Fitzgerald made known in State Parliament. He demanded
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HERE IS A SECOND GUEST POST BY MY FRIEND WENDY MOLINE ABOUT HER INTERESTING FAMILY HISTORY. THIS TIME SHE WRITES ABOUT HER TALENTED GREAT UNCLE GEOFF. In late August 1892, at a site known as Fly Flat in Coolgardie, prospectors Arthur Bayley and William Ford found more
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Typhoid fever is a contagious disease caused by salmonella bacteria. Outbreaks occur where there is a lack of clean water and sanitary facilities, resulting in poor hygiene. Australia’s outback mining camps presented the perfect breeding ground. In the 1890s there were outbreaks in the NSW goldmining town
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In the late 1940s, Australian born archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe lived in an iconic, modernistic building in London’s Belsize Park. The resident of the opposite flat was Agatha Christie. The five storey Isokon Flats, also known as the Lawn Road Flats, had opened in 1934. It became
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Desire La Court arrived in Australia before the outbreak of WWI as George Ohl, from Frankford. Like so many others he was interned as an enemy alien, initially in Queensland, from where he escaped, and then at the huge Holsworthy camp in New South Wales. It was
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I hope this article unearths some Tasmanian descendants of the Persian migrant ship, or perhaps the relatives they left behind in Scotland. The Highland Clearances; what a heartbreaking episode in Scottish history. During the 19th century, destitute crofters were evicted to make way for large sheep runs.
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