My Articles

HUON PINE- a coffin, a ketch and a classical grand piano.

HUON PINE- a coffin, a ketch and a classical grand piano.

Like most  people born and bred in Tasmania, I have a number of treasured Huon pine  items in my home (now in the NSW Blue Mountains). I have just finished reading a book by Brenden Ward  about a fabulous grand piano made a few years ago  from

Read more

SIRIUS COVE SOVEREIGNS PART II – HERMAN THIEL

SIRIUS COVE SOVEREIGNS PART II - HERMAN THIEL

FOR THE FIRST PART OF THE SIRIUS COVE STORY, CLICK HERE. In 1913, above Sirius Cove on Sydney Harbour, a new zoo was under construction….Taronga Park Zoo. One of the many labourers was Herman Thiel.  Thiel was German born, but had been in Australia since 1877, when

Read more

OVALTINE – NIGHTCAP OF A NATION

OVALTINE - NIGHTCAP OF A NATION

In 1941 The Advocate published an artist’s impression of a new Ovaltine factory at Quoiba (near Devonport) in Tasmania. Ovaltine was essentially made from barley, eggs and milk, which Tasmania could produce in the necessary quantities despite wartime restrictions. Most people used it as a comforting hot

Read more

PLATYPUS OR POSSUM? A RUG FOR A DUCHESS.

PLATYPUS OR POSSUM? A RUG FOR A DUCHESS.

It’s hard to believe that when the Duchess of Cornwall and York visited Tasmania in 1901, debate raged  over whether she should be presented with a rug of platypus fur or, alternatively, that of the black brush tail possum. 😨 The level  of excitement in Australia over

Read more

Haywood’s Biscuits

Haywood's Biscuits

Don’t you wish someone still made biscuits such  as  raspberry filled Huon Hearts  ❤️❤️😍and Tassie Creams? The latter featured chocolate filling and were stamped with  a little map of Tasmania.   I don’t know when the last Huon Heart rolled off the production line, but they were among

Read more

LACHLINA ELIZABETH SCOTT

LACHLINA ELIZABETH SCOTT

The grave of 37 year old  Lachlina Elizabeth Scott  Walker in Tasmania’s  Longford Pioneer Cemetery raises an interesting question. What was the origin of her unusual first name?     Here is the registration  of her birth; Now in my opinion Lachlina was named for a colonial

Read more

VITA-WEAT – NOW WITHOUT ‘WORMS’

VITA-WEAT - NOW WITHOUT  'WORMS'

Vita-Weat biscuits were introduced  in Australia in 1932, by the UK company Peek Frean’s.  For many years the factory was located in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield. The factory moved into its striking, art-deco building in 1937.  A clock tower (shown in the above photo) was a

Read more

PAUL LOUBET – THE FALLOUT

PAUL LOUBET - THE FALLOUT

  When  ‘Doctor’ Paul Rene Loubet was unmasked as an imposter in September 1917 he left behind a grieving, bewildered young widow. Nell Kent Loubet (nee Hughes) immediately moved back to her family’s home  in Toorak. More positively, she graduated from Melbourne University in January 1918 as

Read more

DR LOUBET AT FOOTSCRAY

DR LOUBET AT FOOTSCRAY

  By early February 1917 Dr Paul Loubet had moved from Blackall in outback Queensland  to Melbourne. He was to act as locum tenens for Dr Roland Lane, a Footscray  G.P. who was on military duty. Dr Lane and his wife Hazel had a large home  called

Read more

DR LOUBET AT BLACKALL

DR LOUBET AT BLACKALL

  THE PAUL LOUBET STORY, PART TWO (BLACKALL). FOR THE FIRST EPISODE, CLICK HERE. From The Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) ‘Our informant happened to be in Jericho when Dr Loubet and a very fine looking woman, who was introduced everywhere as Mrs Loubet, were going through to Blackall.

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).