Visitors to the new photography gallery at the Library of NSW in Sydney’s Macquarie Street will see a tiny portrait of Dr William Bland (1789-1868). Dating from 1844 0r 1845, it is believed to be the earliest existing photo taken in Australia. Dr Bland was the
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Hospital food still gets a bad rap, but honestly it’s not too bad. However, back in the 1920’s food from home was greatly appreciated by patients such as WWI veteran Francis Wooldridge.. Wooldridge was a married man with six children when he went off to war in
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From The Hobart Town Advertiser, July 20 1841. The Rajah, female convict ship, from England, 5th April, arrived last night. Any important news will be given in our 2nd edition. Farewell to old England forever. From The Australasian, February 9 1935 E. Winifred Ure, of
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I remember Feltex as a rather dingy, grey floor covering that only poor people had in the 1950s. Mind you, my family only had linoleum and mats! Apparently Feltex did come in other colours. The following advertisement was published in the Australian Women’s Weekly in 1952. The
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As a born and bred Tasmanian I’m ashamed to admit that I had never heard of remote Swan Island and its lighthouse. It is located five miles off the north-east coast of Tasmania. The tower was built in 1845 using convict labour, poor souls. An unusual feature
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Adelaide Ironside (1831-1867) was a Sydney girl, considered to be a child genius. She was taken under the wing of the Reverend John Dunmore Lang; clergyman, educator and politician. Adelaide Ironside became the first Australian born woman to study art abroad. In her case this was to
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On January 2 1941, Eric Ross Robinson was working alone on night-shift at Tasmania’s Moonah railway station. He had joined the railways in 1935, employed as relieving porter at various stations around the State. The 26 year old lived a quiet life with his parents and younger
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Agnes Grant Hay was the very wealthy widow of South Australian pastoralist, merchant and politician, Alexander Gosse Hay. She was an inveterate traveller…and an author; After spending many months in England and Scotland during 1908, Mrs Hay and her unmarried daughter Helen (Dolly) returned home on
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Grandma Shadbolt was born Jane Whitton. She was from Lichfield in Staffordshire. In 1848, when she was 19, she was transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) for seven years. In a first offence she had stolen the sum of three pounds. Unfortunately we don’t have a photo
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Rivers Paterson (nee Staines) was born on the day her father Thomas drowned in the Bell River, between Molong and Wellington, in the central west of New South Wales. Thomas Staines was an ex-convict; a former blacksmith and farrier from Leicestershire. He was transported for life in
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