In 1903 there was a public vote to determine whether Mr F.H. Furner’s new hotel in the seaside Tasmanian town of Ulverstone should be granted a liquor licence. Surprise, surprise….the ayes were in the majority. The old Queen had died the previous year, but the design was
Read more →Winifred Julia Singleton (Winnie) was born near Ulverstone, Tasmania on November 29 1918, the first child of Arthur and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Singleton. Arthur Singleton was my great uncle. There is only one known photo of Winnie. It was taken in 1924, when she and her little sister
Read more →Anyone growing up in rural Tasmania in the old days would be aware of the lunch basket, often taken out to the paddock by small children. And if a piece of cake or a biscuit disappeared on the way….well who could blame them? My farmer’s wife mother
Read more →The picture shows a model (not to scale) of a very unique grandstand. The model is held in the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s museum, which opened in 2006. Sadly, the stand itself is long gone. THE BACK STORY OF THE GRANDSTAND The grandstand was designed by architect George
Read more →The crew of Lancaster Bomber PB 255 was made up of six RAAF personnel and an RAF Flight Engineer. The oldest on board was only twenty five, Mid Upper Gunner Cyril Deed, who had enlisted in Hobart early in 1941. He had left a girl behind, Philma
Read more →I was intrigued to come across a reference to one of my articles on the internet recently. It was included in the description of a rare and beautiful item offered for sale by Hordern House Rare books, located in Sydney’s Surry Hills. This tiny object was of
Read more →Professor Bonner was a self-styled hypnotist, touring the eastern states of Australia in the early part of the 20th century. On January 30 1906, the professor was in Ballarat, performing with Bostock and Wombwell’s Circus. As part of his headline act, a pocket knife was secreted in
Read more →William Singleton was my great-great grandfather. He was transported to Tasmania for life in 1828, aboard the convict ship Manilus. As with most convicts his crime was theft, in this case cheese, bread and bacon. Oh dear, a seventeen year old brickie’s lad gets very hungry. During
Read more →Many of us were fascinated to read the recently released, vice-regal correspondence leading up to the dismissal of the Whitlam government in November 1975 . However, as a born and bred Tasmanian I was intrigued by two letters written the following year, but prompted by the same
Read more →From the 1863 New South Wales Police Gazette. Bushranger Ben Hall strikes again; This tiny snippet was the only mention of the robbery at that time, and no-one was ever charged. In those days, travelling the country’s rural roads was a dangerous business and outlaws led the
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