HERE IS A SECOND GUEST POST BY MY FRIEND WENDY MOLINE ABOUT HER INTERESTING FAMILY HISTORY. THIS TIME SHE WRITES ABOUT HER TALENTED GREAT UNCLE GEOFF. In late August 1892, at a site known as Fly Flat in Coolgardie, prospectors Arthur Bayley and William Ford found more
Read more →
Typhoid fever is a contagious disease caused by salmonella bacteria. Outbreaks occur where there is a lack of clean water and sanitary facilities, resulting in poor hygiene. Australia’s outback mining camps presented the perfect breeding ground. In the 1890s there were outbreaks in the NSW goldmining town
Read more →
In the late 1940s, Australian born archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe lived in an iconic, modernistic building in London’s Belsize Park. The resident of the opposite flat was Agatha Christie. The five storey Isokon Flats, also known as the Lawn Road Flats, had opened in 1934. It became
Read more →
Desire La Court arrived in Australia before the outbreak of WWI as George Ohl, from Frankford. Like so many others he was interned as an enemy alien, initially in Queensland, from where he escaped, and then at the huge Holsworthy camp in New South Wales. It was
Read more →
I hope this article unearths some Tasmanian descendants of the Persian migrant ship, or perhaps the relatives they left behind in Scotland. The Highland Clearances; what a heartbreaking episode in Scottish history. During the 19th century, destitute crofters were evicted to make way for large sheep runs.
Read more →
Robert Hare Burke and William Wills; the ill-fated explorers who travelled north from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860/61. As we know, both men died from exhaustion and starvation on the return journey. There is a link to the full story of the expedition at
Read more →
John Winterbottom, born 1789, was a solicitor, town clerk and much respected Mayor of Stockport, Cheshire. He was also a founding partner in Stockport’s first bank. However, in 1839 he faced bankruptcy after a series of failed investments. His desperation led him to defraud a client, the
Read more →
‘The Anzac Artist’ was the name given to the brilliant, South Australian born artist Frank Williams. FOR PART ONE OF FRANK’S STORY, CLICK HERE. The Gallipoli veteran arrived in London in 1919, to further his career and to study in Paris. As a homosexual man, the opportunity
Read more →
In 1918 Nellie Melba provided the boost to the career of artist Frank Williams that he had always dreamed of. The Adelaide born Williams had been wounded at Gallipoli, and was discharged in 1916 suffering from paralysis and severe shellshock. Back in Adelaide he slowly regained his
Read more →
Charlie Leeming, one of the smartest telegraphists in Tasmania, leaves Launceston to take charge of the Queenstown office. His co-workers packed him with lots of good wishes, travelling bag and rug of the very best. He will be much missed in Launceston. (The Clipper, Sat. Jul 23
Read more →