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 →Ambergris is one of those rare, mystical materials that have captured the imagination of people for centuries. But what exactly is it? Well, it’s a waxy substance occasionally (very occasionally) found in the intestines of sperm whales, or washed up on beaches after being excreted by them.
Read more →The quirky business card from Bowery in Katoomba gives a clue to what you will find inside the old St Andrews church building,,,other than the great food I mean. By the way, that’s Mr Lorikeet, dressed to impress. Bird related items form part of the restaurant’s
Read more →Ann Hordern (nee Woodhead) arrived in Sydney with her husband Anthony and their four children in 1825. When their ship the Phoenix docked she wrote a letter to her parents, to be sent back to England on the ship’s return voyage. After a wander up George Street
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