Residents of Devonport, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, once had an opportunity to pick up an old master; a portrait by French artist Nicolas de Largillière (1656-1746) THE SELLER – MR GARNETT Offering the painting at auction was Yorkshire born George H. Garnett. He was a
Read more →
Three Hummock Island is located in the Bass Strait, close to the north-west coast of Tasmania. It became the centre of a mystery in October 1902. Captain Leask, master of the ketch Royal Oak, returned from a visit there and notified authorities that he had found the
Read more →
Cremation was being advocated in Tasmania in the 1890s. The following piece is from the Tasmanian Democrat, August 7 1896. A correspondent asserted that traditional burial was very costly, and that cemeteries often became eyesores. ‘For a piece of ground suitable for this purpose you will have
Read more →
Where there is a commodity as precious as gold, there is a possibility of fraud. In June 1950 a twenty seven year old Melbourne man arrived in Kalgoolie hoping to do a bit of gold trading. He put the word out and soon found himself being offered
Read more →
In November 1931 Mr A. Laurie was employed as sole officer at the Broadmeadow (Newcastle) branch of the Bank of New South Wales. The bank was located at Belford Street, by the Nine Ways commercial centre. As a sub-branch it was only open between the hours of
Read more →
Hermann Krefft was born in 1879, the youngest child of Gerard Krefft, brilliant naturalist and controversial curator of the Australian Museum. Following disputes with the trustees, Krefft senior had been turfed out of the Museum in 1874, while still seated in his armchair. You can read about
Read more →
S.S. Sonoma was a passenger ship plying between Sydney and San Francisco in the 1920s. One hundred people boarding in Sydney in November 1921 were unaware that a very valuable cargo would accompany them to the United States. The Sonoma was loaded with newly minted gold sovereigns,
Read more →
Could John Bunyan’s Bible, yes….Bunyan the Puritan preacher and author of Pilgrim’s Progress, have ended up in the fair city of Adelaide? Not just any of his Bibles, but the very one he used while imprisoned all those years ago in Bedford. (Following the restoration of the
Read more →
This article is primarily about the 1895 fire at Port Arthur in relation to the Model Prison, although the entire historic site was severely impacted. The Separate, or Model Prison at Tasmania’s Port Arthur closed in 1877. ‘Separate’ meant complete isolation. Inmates wore hoods if others were
Read more →
