My Articles

Mrs Hay & the S.S. Waratah – Final Passage

Mrs Hay  & the S.S. Waratah - Final Passage

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

Read more

SANTA’S ‘NICE’ LIST

SANTA'S 'NICE'  LIST

Hello, this is your Christmas correspondent, Editor Des. Have you heard of a Santa’s  Nice List? Well a lovely lady called Amelia  at our village laundromat put one up in her front window. It’s in Wentworth Street at Blackheath. That’s in the Blue Mountains in case you

Read more

Grandma Shadbolt’s Christmas Pudding

Grandma Shadbolt's Christmas Pudding

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

Read more

THE CRICKET CHRISTMAS CAKE🏏

THE CRICKET CHRISTMAS CAKE🏏

Cricket matches,  especially Ashes series, do not usually engender  goodwill between Australia and England. However, as Christmas approached in 1932, Australia made a remarkable gesture. A giant, Ashes themed   cake was sent to London to be distributed to the city’s hospitals and children’s homes . It weighed

Read more

Rivers Paterson – what’s in a name?

Rivers Paterson - what's in a name?

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

Read more

The Magnifying Glass 🔍

The Magnifying Glass 🔍

A magnifying glass provided as much enjoyment to children of the Baby Boomer generation (Yes, I’m one) as expensive toys. The following photo was taken at my birthday party in 1957. It’s hard to spot, but the little boy  is holding our large magnifying glass to his

Read more

A Taste of Paris in Katoomba 🥐

A Taste of Paris in Katoomba 🥐

I do realize that Katoomba is a long way from Paris,  but we Blue Mountains residents adore  croissants as much as anyone else around the world.  This sulphur crested cockatoo is no different. But which ones to choose?   Well don’t look at me mate, it’s entirely  your

Read more

SUZANNE – THE BEAUTY CONTESTANT WHO BECAME A LADY

SUZANNE - THE BEAUTY CONTESTANT WHO BECAME A LADY

Suzanne (originally Susannah) Evans was one of five children. She was born in 1893 in the gold mining town of Walhalla, Victoria to John and Alice Evans. Her mother died when she was only eight years old. In 1914 the Evans family moved to Melbourne and the

Read more

SAO – OFTEN BUTTERED, NEVER BETTERED

SAO - OFTEN BUTTERED, NEVER BETTERED

Sao biscuits are almost as iconic as Anzacs, although  they were far too delicate to send to our troops in the first and second world wars.  However, in 1933 an  anonymous poet did conjure a military connection dating back to a far earlier conflict. Apparently it was

Read more

MUSHROOMS OF THE FIELDS

MUSHROOMS OF THE FIELDS

Picking blackberries and collecting field mushrooms…oh the  simple pleasures of a 1950s Tasmanian childhood. There were a couple of  uncultivated paddocks on our farm that produced basketfuls of mushrooms every autumn.  We used to eat them fried on toast for breakfast. Plain old white bread in those

Read more

Notification of new stories via Email

Enter your email address to receive notification of new stories on this website (your address will not be shown).