Tin-kettling was an old rural custom in Tasmania, as indeed it was around the whole of Australia. It was a kind of initiation for newlyweds; their welcome into the community as a married couple. In the early days it was carried out by the ‘young bloods’ of
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Here are two men, one from the left of Australian politics, one from the right. Appropriately Labor’s Barry Jones (1932 -) is shown below at left. Conservative, long serving Prime Minister John Howard (1939 -) is on the right. This odd couple are linked by their engaging
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A look back at Symmons Plains….and a bit about Baskerville. What a surprise to discover that back in the 1970s my partner Rob had a brief stint as a Tasmanian motor racing journo. It has given us both a chuckle, as this otherwise very clever fellow hates
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Allan Riverstone McCulloch (1885-1925) scientist. museum curator, illustrator, journalist, and so much more. McCulloch’s legacy has been largely unacknowledged, but he is the subject of a recent biography by Brendan Atkins. I absolutely loved the book, although it may not appeal to everyone. McCulloch was born in
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I have been ‘decluttering’ as we move into our new house. One item that nearly went into the skip was an old, glass covered wooden tray. Apart from accumulated dust and dirt it had one seemingly unsolvable problem, The gold braid trim under the glass had broken.
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A sweet, Eastern Water Skink family have lived inside an old stone wall in our Blue Mountains garden for years. When we were building a new house on the site we had to dismantle part of the wall. My lovely partner Rob decided it was only
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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,
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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
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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
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