FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS STORY, CLICK HERE The worst scams during the 1913 smallpox epidemic in Sydney were due to money grabbing quacks and even disreputable, registered doctors. NSW health authorities were to blame in large measure, because the State had failed to supply enough
Read more →
From the time I moved to Blackheath 25 years ago I have loved this empty property in Wentworth Street, especially in autumn. Blackheath born Larraine Home tells me it was once the fire station. I must admit it doesn’t look like a fire station. However, there is
Read more →
Murder Pie is such a great name for a detective novel. This book was published by Sydney’s Angus & Robertson, in 1936. The idea of the book was conceived by poet and author Jean Ranken. She convinced sixteen of Sydney’s well known literary personalities to collaborate on
Read more →
Spreading hard butter on soft bread has always been a problem. When I was a child growing up in Tasmania my mother battled with this while trying to make our school lunches in winter. Her solution was to put the butter in a bowl then melt it
Read more →
Arthur Clement ‘Spuds’ Foster was a decorated WWI veteran. He was also the man behind the creation of the Tasmanian Potato Marketing Board in the 1920’s. In 1930 Foster was appointed Commonwealth Potato Controller, and moved to the mainland. However he never ceased advocating for Tasmania.
Read more →
I love this photo of a ferry approaching the wharf in Mosman Bay, on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. My partner Rob and I lived just above the wharf in the 1980s and 90s, travelling to the city each day by ferry. There was once a suggestion that
Read more →
MOSMAN MYSTERY PART ONE Mrs Dorothy Thorne died by strychnine poisoning at her Mosman home on July 5 1932. The family’s boarder, Alfred Lockyer, found himself under intense scrutiny by detectives. As speculation continued, he gave a rather ill-advised interview to a reporter from the sensationalist Smith’s
Read more →
Venture into any antique or collectibles shop in Australia and you may well find a piece of vintage, hand crafted Weeda Copper. The business began in my hometown of Ulverstone, Tasmania in the early 1950s. A lot of Dutch migrants came to Ulverstone and the neighbouring town
Read more →
Extensions to the Post Office in Burnie (North West Tasmania) were completed in 1901. Civic pride was reflected in the following section of a detailed newspaper article on the merits of the building. I love the mention of Tasmanian blackwood and Huon pine; Six months
Read more →
On the train to Sydney recently I was reading Norman Lindsay’s autobiography My Mask. One of the photos in the book was of Lindsay and his son Ray aboard the three masted sailing ship the Joseph Conrad, when it visited Sydney Harbour in December 1935.
Read more →