‘Bigger than Ben Hur’. the saying goes. Well that was certainly true of the fire that engulfed Sydney’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1902. Impressario J. C. Williamson’s production of Ben Hur had been wowing audiences since opening night on February 8. It was the biggest and costliest
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First up, a silly riddle about Woolloomooloo by C.J. Dennis; Yes, that’s eight o’s. 😛 It’s a small jump to the puzzle of which Aussie icon rhymes with Woolloomooloo. WOOLLOOMOOLOO – affectionately dubbed ‘the Loo’. It once had a reputation as a rough and ready sort of
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The original Parliament House in Canberra was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York on May 9, 1927. The luncheon menu appeared in the papers. Turtle soup would be frowned on nowadays, but I thought Canberra pudding was a creative touch. CANBERRA PUDDING The following recipe
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Miss Mary Latham Clulow, of Sydney’s exclusive Bellevue Hill, had made a lot of money, mainly through property investments. She was an astute business woman, as this 1903 court action demonstrates; Miss Clulow died on October 26 1944 at a private hospital in Rose Bay. Subsequently there
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Dr Edward Drummond had undertaken his medical training in Edinburgh, and spent time in England and Italy. His entry in the 1886 Australian Medical Directory read ‘Formerly Physician Scots. Coll, Rome, Sidmouth Dispensary etc. ‘ He had recently arrived in Sydney from South Africa and was initially
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Where there is a commodity as precious as gold, there is a possibility of fraud. In June 1950 a twenty seven year old Melbourne man arrived in Kalgoolie hoping to do a bit of gold trading. He put the word out and soon found himself being offered
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Stella and Reginald Harrison were married at Hawthorn, Victoria in May 1934. However, married life for the couple began in Sydney, where Reginald had been appointed Manager of the Mansion House Private Hotel in Elizabeth Street. The only shadow on their happiness was that in July Stella,
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Edith and George Smith married in Queenstown around 1913. They later moved to the Hobart suburb of New Town, where they ran a general store on the corner of Carlton and Pedder Streets. The building still stands. The business was actually owned by Edith, who had
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This is a guest post from my friend Wendy Moline. Wendy came across some old family photos of various motor vehicles, and I was enchanted by them. However, the first image is a very special drawing. In bygone days My first trip in motorised transport was in
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