Etched into the memory of Australians is the horrific kidnapping and murder of Sydney boy Graeme Thorne in 1960. It represented such a loss of innocence for our country. However, this was not the first time that the kidnapping of a child accompanied by a ransom demand
Read more →
In 1960 a revolving restaurant opened at Scenic World, Katoomba, in the NSW Blue Mountains. It was the first in Australia and just the second in the entire world. Katoomba had been pipped at the post by Florianturm in Germany, which had opened its doors in 1959.
Read more →
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
Read more →
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
Read more →
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
Read more →
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
Read more →
Milk Arrowroot biscuits have been part of Australian life for generations; left out for Santa with a glass of milk, popped into school lunchboxes, and in the early days crushed and fed to babies in their bottles. A large part of the company’s advertising involved
Read more →
‘The string bag is the symbol of feminine bondage in Australia’. Thus spoke US consul Mr T.C. Robinson at a conference of the NSW Agricultural Bureau in 1950. He advocated a reorganisation of food distribution (which eventually led to supermarkets and shopping malls), better laundry and dry-cleaning
Read more →
Aunty Ed’s seemed a good place to celebrate a significant birthday for a small bear by the name of Editor Des. Reaching a quarter of a century deserves recognition. Not a telegram from the king just yet. but something special from Australia Post. AUNTY ED’S …PERFECT FOR TEDS
Read more →
Eric Huxley, 19, a student of the Sydney University, living at Clanalpine Street, Mosman, was struck by a motor car as he was crossing Parramatta Road near the University yesterday. He suffered a fractured skull…..he died late last night. (Sydney Morning Herald, June 13 1930) The young
Read more →