My Articles

GEOFF MOLINE; GOLD FIELD ARCHITECT & ARTIST

GEOFF MOLINE; GOLD FIELD ARCHITECT & ARTIST

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

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TYPHOID ON THE OPAL FIELD

TYPHOID ON THE OPAL FIELD

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

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THOMAS MORT & HIS LITHGOW PICNIC

THOMAS MORT & HIS  LITHGOW PICNIC

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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CHILDE AND CHRISTIE; A MARXIST & A MYSTERY WRITER

CHILDE AND CHRISTIE; A MARXIST & A MYSTERY WRITER

In the late 1940s, Australian born archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe lived in an iconic, modernistic building in London’s Belsize Park. The resident of the opposite flat was Agatha Christie. The five storey Isokon Flats, also known as the Lawn Road Flats, had opened in 1934. It became

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COMPUTER CHIPS 😎

COMPUTER CHIPS 😎

The screen on my Dell laptop computer suddenly froze a couple of weeks ago. I couldn’t even turn the damn thing off. Panic! Thankfully we have an extended service warranty, so my partner rang up and was patiently taken through the complicated steps to fix it. There

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THE DEVILISH MR DESIRE LA COURT

THE DEVILISH MR DESIRE LA COURT

Desire La Court arrived in Australia before the outbreak of WWI as George Ohl, from Frankford. Like so many others he was interned as an enemy alien, initially in Queensland, from where he escaped, and then at the huge Holsworthy camp in New South Wales. It was

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THE PERSIAN – PLAGUED BY TYPHOID

THE PERSIAN - PLAGUED BY TYPHOID

I hope this article unearths some Tasmanian descendants of the Persian migrant ship, or perhaps the relatives they left behind in Scotland. The Highland Clearances; what a heartbreaking episode in Scottish history. During the 19th century, destitute crofters were evicted to make way for large sheep runs.

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BURKE & WILLS …..THE PISTOL

BURKE  & WILLS .....THE PISTOL

Robert Hare Burke and William Wills; the ill-fated explorers who travelled north from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1860/61. As we know, both men died from exhaustion and starvation on the return journey. There is a link to the full story of the expedition at

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JOHN WINTERBOTTOM – CONVICT TOWN CLERK

JOHN WINTERBOTTOM - CONVICT TOWN CLERK

John Winterbottom, born 1789, was a solicitor, town clerk and much respected Mayor of Stockport, Cheshire. He was also a founding partner in Stockport’s first bank. However, in 1839 he faced bankruptcy after a series of failed investments. His desperation led him to defraud a client, the

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FRANK WILLIAMS – AN ARTIST ABROAD

FRANK WILLIAMS - AN ARTIST ABROAD

‘The Anzac Artist’ was the name given to the brilliant, South Australian born artist Frank Williams. FOR PART ONE OF FRANK’S STORY, CLICK HERE. The Gallipoli veteran arrived in London in 1919, to further his career and to study in Paris. As a homosexual man, the opportunity

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