A PRICELESS GIFT On September 26 1968, Australia’s Consul-General in New York, Sir Reginald Sholl, received a visit from an elderly gentleman offering to present the Australian government with a pair of earrings associated with Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth. Sholl’s visitor was Edward Manley Hopkins, great-grandson
Read more →
RUFFLED FEATHERS For the seagulls of Australia, the arrival of Europeans was an unpleasant experience. As Cook’s Endeavor made its way along the east coast in 1770, the crew were forced to supplement their dwindling provisions by shooting and eating the birds. Sir Joseph Banks wrote; Sea
Read more →
It’s a rare, but delightful experience to come across a project that is fresh, funny and completely engaging. For me, it was author & illustrator Katie W. Stewart’s book, Famous Animals. I was so impressed when Katie posted a sample in a writers’ group we belong to,
Read more →
Unlike my ancestors, I have never thought of England as ‘home’. However, I did grow up a little confused about my national identity. At primary school in Tasmania we stood before the flag on Empire Day and sang God Save the Queen before being handed a packet
Read more →
Spring warmth after frost and snow is one of the joys of nature. It was that period in the vernal quarter when we may suppose the Dryads to be waking for the season. The vegetable world begins to move and swell and the saps to rise,
Read more →
I bought this Victorian cabinet to display them in when we move into our new house. AN OBSESSION IS BORN- MANY PILLBOXES FOLLOWED! On holiday in Tasmania some years ago, I purchased a sweet little pillbox in an antique store at Evandale. It was gilt, with a
Read more →
JOHN RASHALL THE PREACHER AND THE POET ALFRED TENNYSON An interesting aspect of my book The Water Doctor’s Daughters, is the lifelong friendship of the poet Alfred Tennyson and the Reverend John Rashdall. The pair had grown up together in rural Lincolnshire, and were contemporaries at Cambridge
Read more →
BORONIA Because the fragrance of your deeds, Has sweetened a sad soul’s doom, And ministered to many needs, I send you Boronia blooms. Ella McFadyen 1906 I confess there is an element of nostalgia in my love of the tiny brown cups of fragrant Boronia megastigma. I
Read more →
Did Sydney’s Eliza Donnithorne inspire Charles Dickens? When Pip meets the jilted Miss Havisham in the novel Great Expectations she is dressed in her decaying wedding attire, presenting a terrifying blend of waxwork figure and living skeleton. There is a theory that Charles Dickens based this character
Read more →
BON VOYAGE In early June 1898 a young man called Victor Richard Ratten resigned from his position at the Union Bank in Forbes, a small town in the Central West of New South Wales. His colleagues presented him with a memento and wished him Bon Voyage. I
Read more →