Portrait of Lieut. Claridge by George Coates.
Read more →November 1919 – WWI has ended, the flu epidemic has eased, and 110,000 people turn out for race day at Flemington; the nation stopping Melbourne Cup From the Adelaide Observer, November 8 1919); ‘One of Australia’s best assets is the horse. Like the call of the bush,
Read more →Constance Dickens (nee Desailly) was the wife of Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, affectionately dubbed Plorn by his father, the author Charles Dickens. Plorn was a contraction of a much longer ‘nonsense’ nickname. The pair married on July 7 1880 at the Desailly residence in outback Wilcannia, New
Read more →In 1947 the movie Bush Christmas was filmed in the Burragorang Valley and the nearby Blue Mountains of New South Wales. As the caption of the following photo mentions, the Valley was subsequently flooded to create Warragamba Dam. There is now a controversial plan to raise the
Read more →Imagine Agatha Christie needing an introduction. 😎 The following article appeared below a small photo of her in Sydney’s Evening News a century ago. (1922). Wife of Colonel Christie, a member of the British Empire Mission at present travelling through Australia to spread the details of the
Read more →In the 1890s it was decided to ‘dress up’ Sydney’s Centennial Park with monuments of eminent people. One choice was a full size, marble statue of novelist Charles Dickens. However, there was a major problem, as M.P Mr J.D. Fitzgerald made known in State Parliament. He demanded
Read more →HERE IS A SECOND GUEST POST BY MY FRIEND WENDY MOLINE ABOUT HER INTERESTING FAMILY HISTORY. THIS TIME SHE WRITES ABOUT HER TALENTED GREAT UNCLE GEOFF. In late August 1892, at a site known as Fly Flat in Coolgardie, prospectors Arthur Bayley and William Ford found more
Read more →Typhoid fever is a contagious disease caused by salmonella bacteria. Outbreaks occur where there is a lack of clean water and sanitary facilities, resulting in poor hygiene. Australia’s outback mining camps presented the perfect breeding ground. In the 1890s there were outbreaks in the NSW goldmining town
Read more →Thomas Sutcliffe Mort was an Australian pastoralist, and a pioneer of preserving food for export by freezing. In September 1875 he organized a picnic lunch for 300 influential people (all men of course 😎) at Lithgow, where he had established a vast meat works and chilling complex.
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