By the 1850s Tasmania (still known as Van Dieman’s Land) was in need of its own, official postage system and legislation was duly passed. It was intended that the first stamps would be printed in England, but as the deadline of a November 1 1853 issue date
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Edith Holmes (1893-1973) was born in the rural community of Hamilton, in Tasmania. She showed great promise at drawing from an early age. Encouraged by her mother, Edith began studying art at the Hobart Technical College in 1918, aged 15. In 1930-31 she received tuition at Julian
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HOBART – Sunday. The Premier Mr A. G. Ogilvie announced tonight that the Government intended to submit a bill to Parliament on October 13 to permit a private company to construct a pontoon type of bridge across the Derwent between Government House Point and midway between Lindisfarne
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Anna King was the first Governor’s spouse to reside in New South Wales. Her husband (and first cousin) was Philip Gidley King, the Colony’s third Governor. He was in office from 1800 until 1806. In 1799 Anna boarded the ship Speedy for a not so speedy trip
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Among the treasures from the Trevor Kennedy collection, purchased recently by the Australian National Museum, is a unique brooch. It was made-to-order in Amsterdam for pioneer aviator Charles Kingsford Smith, as a gift for his bride to be, Mary Powell. The couple had become engaged on Mary’s
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Is it possible to make friends with a bandicoot? Well, to my surprise the answer is ……yes! Lorraine Tongs Clifford spent her early years on a farm at North Motton, on the north-west coast of Tasmania. It was an idyllic childhood, as her recently completed memoirs reveal.
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Residents of Devonport, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, once had an opportunity to pick up an old master; a portrait by French artist Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746) THE SELLER – MR GARNETT Offering the painting at auction was Yorkshire born George H. Garnett. He was a
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Three Hummock Island is located in the Bass Strait, close to the north-west coast of Tasmania. It became the centre of a mystery in October 1902. Captain Leask, master of the ketch Royal Oak, returned from a visit there and notified authorities that he had found the
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Cremation was being advocated in Tasmania in the 1890s. The following piece is from the Tasmanian Democrat, August 7 1896. A correspondent asserted that traditional burial was very costly, and that cemeteries often became eyesores. ‘For a piece of ground suitable for this purpose you will have
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