In late May 1903, two cases of smallpox were confirmed after the steamer Gracchus had arrived in Melbourne from India on May 2. The first victim was Mr William Walker, a horse dealer who embarked at Singapore. The other was a Mrs Dwan from Ballarat. Mrs Dwan
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In 1881, Patrick Kirby purchased a small undertaker’s business at 84 Hunter Street, in central Sydney. Two years later he sold a half share in the business to Elizabeth Barby, who ran a tobacconist’s shop at no. 66 in the same street. Elizabeth was an astute business
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In 1917 John George ‘Jack’ Nelson established a stylish cafe at 152 Brisbane Street in Launceston. The premises were actually owned by his mother. The Majestic Cafe included a tea room, where Jack’s wife Kate was a charming hostess. The furniture was of Tasmanian oak covered in
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In 1932 Dorothy Thorne was living in this rather modest home in Brierly Street Mosman, on Sydney’s Lower North Shore. It must be the only home in the upmarket suburb not to have been remodeled or enlarged in the succeeding 90 plus years! Mind you, it’s still
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Tasmania’s Dame Enid Lyons and Western Australia’s Dorothy Tangney were the first two women to be elected to Australia’s federal parliament. In 1943 Tangney won a seat in the Senate and that same year Dame Enid was elected to the House of Representatives. It was decided by
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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
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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
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Samuel Harrison was an elderly, widowed farmer who had owned 75 acres fronting the Black Dog Creek near Rutherglen in Victoria. Although he was illiterate he had prospered on the land. When he died suddenly in a neighbour’s cart on April 4 1896 he left an estate
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For many years the general hospital at Ulverstone , on the north west coast of Tasmania, was located on the corner of Victoria and Patrick Street. It was not far from my grandmother’s flat in Victoria Street. In the early hours of July 14 1954 Nurse
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Early settler John Liddle built the Bridge Hotel at Forth in 1871. It opened in January the following year. This is earliest photo I can find, from around 1900. The building in front already looks a bit ramshackle. I wonder if it was the stables? I must
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