Tasmania, as with most of the world, was coping with severe economic depression during the nineteen thirties. The State Government initiated capital works programmes to employ those who were ‘on sustenance’ as it was called. It was considered beneficial to the physical and mental welfare of the
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Soldier Settlement was a federal, but state administered initiative which began during WWI. Land was purchased by government to provide small farms for returning servicemen, often on leasehold. One person who applied was my great-uncle Arthur Singleton, from Ulverstone. With the 12th Battalion he had taken part
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Our first troops left Australia in late October 1914 following the outbreak of World War I. They disembarked in Egypt at Alexandria, and were then moved to a vast encampment near Cairo, where they continued to train in the shadow of the great pyramids. Soon, it was
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Joseph Aloysius Lyons was four years old in 1883, when his father Michael moved the family to the Tasmanian seaside town of Ulverstone. Mr Lyons Snr. opened a bakery and butcher’s shop, but unfortunately he fitted the description of ‘feckless’ rather well, and lost everything betting on
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One of the most successful Tasmanian racehorse owners of the 1940s and 50s was the controversial surgeon Dr. Victor Ratten. He was Surgeon Superintendent of the Royal Hobart Hospital for many years (1917-1936). Dr. Ratten’s success on the track was despite the fact that in 1911 he
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In 2012 a bowl featuring the ship Star of Tasmania was offered for sale by Gowans Auction House in Hobart; Other items related to this ship have appeared for sale over the years. It must have been a very special vessel. From Launceston’s Cornwall Chronicle on Saturday,
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Loongana is an Aboriginal word meaning to be swift, or to fly. There would come a time when this ship would desperately need to live up to its name. The Loongana was built in 1904 on Scotland’s River Clyde. She plied the Bass Strait for many years
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For some years British born Captain William Waterson had been involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Marion ‘Dorothy’ Jackson. Dorothy, 25 years old, lived with her wealthy, widowed mother Matilda at No. 2 Pillinger Street, Sandy Bay, an upmarket suburb of Tasmania’s Hobart. In 1922 the
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When I was growing up on a farm in north-west Tasmania our fences were mainly barbed wire, supported by blackberries. I loved seeing the English style hawthorn hedges when we ventured further south, especially driving through sheep country in the Midlands. Here is an account of hawthorn
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The Blue Mountains town of Blackheath has always attracted visitors during the festive season. The following report appeared in the Lithgow Mercury, dated January 6 1899; BLACKHEATH – According to reports from different towns the railway traffic to the Mountains this Christmas and New Year has largely
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