Blue Mountains – latest article

  • THE EASTERN SPINEBILL - aka COBBLER'S AWL 😎
    THE EASTERN SPINEBILL – aka COBBLER’S AWL 😎
    Draw some little legs on a wooden handled cobbler’s awl (even with my lack of skill)  and you would have something  resembling an Eastern Spinebill.   In the old days they were  often referred to as Cobbler’s Awl Birds, and I’m sure that beak could pierce boot...
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History – latest article

  • DRS. RATTEN AND FERRIS & THE CHRISSIE VENN CASE
    DRS. RATTEN AND FERRIS & THE CHRISSIE VENN CASE
    NOTE – THIS IS NOT A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE TRAGIC CHRISSIE VENN MURDER. IT IS ABOUT  THE STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH DRS. RATTEN AND FERRIS FOUND THEMSELVES GIVING EVIDENCE AT THE TRIAL. In August  1914, the rural Tasmanian  community of Sheffield lost both its young doctors; one...
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Humour – latest article

  • THE SAFE BREAKERS
    THE SAFE BREAKERS
    A look at safe breaking in Australia back in the day. Picking a padlock or manipulating tumblers on a combination lock was generally confined to a few experts with sensitive fingers and acute hearing. It wasn’t easy, and of course the contents could be disappointing to say...
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Travel – latest article

  • Collage of Blue Mountains Birds.
    ACER CORNER WELCOMES BIRD LOVERS
    The Studio was home for myself and my partner Rob  while we built our new house at Blackheath, in the beautiful Blue Mountains. After  moving out we  decided to let the detached property to birdwatchers, bushwalkers and nature lovers on a short stay basis.  Acer Corner  is...
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Latest Blog Posts

  • GOLD RUSH DAYS- A PICK AND A TIN PAN PLEASE.
    GOLD RUSH DAYS- A PICK AND A TIN PAN PLEASE.
    Imagine the excitement of the 19th century gold rushes in Victoria and New South Wales. The shops would have been bursting at the seams with everything required for a stay at the diggings. Note the  clever branding in the clothing  advertisement below; a Hargrave’s gold mine top...
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  • RAYMOND MILLER, EXAM IMPOSTER - THE AFTERMATH
    RAYMOND MILLER, EXAM IMPOSTER – THE AFTERMATH
    This is the final chapter in the life of Raymon Campbell Miller. When Miller  was seven years old, his mother began a passionate affair with an Italian Count.  She divorced,  abandoned her son, and left Sydney to marry her lover. Three months after the wedding in Rome...
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  • MISS PAYNE - NEW ENGLAND UNIVERSITY'S ODD STUDENT
    MISS PAYNE – NEW ENGLAND UNIVERSITY’S ODD STUDENT
    When Sydney  tutor Raymond Miller discovered his female student Ngaire Payne was ill-prepared to sit entrance exams for medicine, he  came up with a plan.  He would dress as a woman and sit the exams at New England University in her place. It sounds crazy and well…it...
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  • Lilian Miller and the Italian Count
    Lilian Miller and the Italian Count
    Lilian Beatrice  Simpson was born in Sydney in 1883. She was the  fourth daughter of  Elizabeth and William Parker Simpson (died 1889) English born William was a sculptor and it seems Lilian inherited his artistic sensibility. She dreamed of becoming an opera singer.  In 1901, Lilian married...
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