Like most people born and bred in Tasmania, I have a number of treasured Huon pine items in my home (now in the NSW Blue Mountains). I have just finished reading a book by Brenden Ward about a fabulous grand piano made a few years ago from
Read more →FOR THE FIRST PART OF THE SIRIUS COVE STORY, CLICK HERE. In 1913, above Sirius Cove on Sydney Harbour, a new zoo was under construction….Taronga Park Zoo. One of the many labourers was Herman Thiel. Thiel was German born, but had been in Australia since 1877, when
Read more →In 1941 The Advocate published an artist’s impression of a new Ovaltine factory at Quoiba (near Devonport) in Tasmania. Ovaltine was essentially made from barley, eggs and milk, which Tasmania could produce in the necessary quantities despite wartime restrictions. Most people used it as a comforting hot
Read more →It’s hard to believe that when the Duchess of Cornwall and York visited Tasmania in 1901, debate raged over whether she should be presented with a rug of platypus fur or, alternatively, that of the black brush tail possum. 😨 The level of excitement in Australia over
Read more →Don’t you wish someone still made biscuits such as raspberry filled Huon Hearts ❤️❤️😍and Tassie Creams? The latter featured chocolate filling and were stamped with a little map of Tasmania. I don’t know when the last Huon Heart rolled off the production line, but they were among
Read more →The grave of 37 year old Lachlina Elizabeth Scott Walker in Tasmania’s Longford Pioneer Cemetery raises an interesting question. What was the origin of her unusual first name? Here is the registration of her birth; Now in my opinion Lachlina was named for a colonial
Read more →When ‘Doctor’ Paul Rene Loubet was unmasked as an imposter in September 1917 he left behind a grieving, bewildered young widow. Nell Kent Loubet (nee Hughes) immediately moved back to her family’s home in Toorak. More positively, she graduated from Melbourne University in January 1918 as a
Read more →By early February 1917 Dr Paul Loubet had moved from Blackall in outback Queensland to Melbourne. He was to act as locum tenens for Dr Roland Lane, a Footscray G.P. who was on military duty. Dr Lane and his wife Hazel had a large home called
Read more →THE PAUL LOUBET STORY, PART TWO (BLACKALL). FOR THE FIRST EPISODE, CLICK HERE. From The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) ‘Our informant happened to be in Jericho when Dr Loubet and a very fine looking woman, who was introduced everywhere as Mrs Loubet, were going through to Blackall.
Read more →The story of Paul Rene Loubet and his life in Australia reads more like fiction than real life, and researching it has been quite a challenge, albeit a fascinating one. This is the first ‘chapter’. Annabel Illingworth married young doctor Percy Webber Black in London in March
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