PHILIP HARGRAVE – LOVE AND WAR

PHILIP HARGRAVE - LOVE AND WAR

FOR THE FIRST PART OF PHILIP HARGRAVE’S STORY. CLICK HERE. Philip Hargrave was a child prodigy. The brilliant young pianist from Adelaide had amazed and delighted audiences from the age of seven.  In 1934 the then 13 year old’s  national concert tour was  interrupted  by  a bitter

Read more

Philip Hargrave – A Child Prodigy & A Custody Case

Philip Hargrave - A Child Prodigy & A Custody Case

Philip  Douglas Hargrave was born in Toowoomba on September 11 1921. His mother Margaret Murray (sometimes known as Marjorie) was a talented pianist.  She was  performing with a theatre company called The Globetrotters at the time, and worked until the last three weeks of her pregnancy.  Philip

Read more

Sir Francis Smith’s Stolen Silver

Sir Francis Smith's Stolen Silver

Sir Francis Smith(1809-1909) was Tasmania’s Chief Justice  and also its fifth Premier. He lived in a grand home in prestigious  Holebrook Place,  which formed part of  Hobart’s Davey Street.   On May 24, 1870  Sir Francis and his wife Sarah hosted a party to celebrate Queen Victoria’s

Read more

MISS VICKERY AND HER RARE TASMANIAN STAMPS

MISS VICKERY AND HER RARE TASMANIAN STAMPS

Amy Alfreda Vickery inherited two warehouses in Sydney’s Goulburn Street when her wealthy father Ebenezer Vickery  died in 1906. Two years later the warehouses would fund  a mansion Amy built on The Boulevarde in Strathfield, called Lauriston. Miss Vickery’s other indulgence was philately and she built up

Read more

‘MAD’ TOM DAVEY’S OTHER GRANDDAUGHTER, MARY SCOTT

'MAD' TOM DAVEY'S OTHER GRANDDAUGHTER, MARY SCOTT

This interesting  piece has been contributed by a long term associate of mine, Robin Walsh. Robin is acknowledged  as Australia’s  foremost expert on the Macquarie era. For many years he was Librarian at Macquarie University. He edited and compiled the book, In Her Own Words; the Writings

Read more

SIRIUS COVE SOVEREIGNS PART II – HERMAN THIEL

SIRIUS COVE SOVEREIGNS PART II - HERMAN THIEL

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