The Ottery arsenic mine, near Emmaville in northern New South Wales, closed as a commercial venture in the 1930s. Arsenic was once used heavily in rural Australia as sheep and cattle dip, weed killer and for curing animal skins. It was said that stock drinking from
Read more →EARLY HISTORY OF BLACKHEATH DUCK POND When the Great Western Railway crossed the Blue Mountains of New South Wales in the 1860s a reliable water source was required for the steam engines. In the village of Blackheath a catchment area to the north and east of Gardners
Read more →A WANDER ALONG WENTWORTH STREET. Since the Great Western Highway from Sydney to the Blue Mountains was upgraded there has been a huge rise in visitor numbers. My home of Blackheath is one of the highest villages, and in autumn Wentworth Street in particular is a joy
Read more →Mrs Eva Hallett arrived in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba by rail in the autumn of 1916, accompanied by her 16 year old daughter Violet. For a few days the pair stayed in a well known boarding house. However, Mrs Hallett then visited a local estate
Read more →The following story is about my great-uncle Arthur, who I never met and barely knew existed during my childhood. This was despite the fact that my father had been named in his honour. Arthur died when I was fifteen. He was buried in our local cemetery at
Read more →SILENT WEAPONS OF WAR My research for this story began amid the startling news of the chemical attack on the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, and of chemical weapons being used in Syria. I knew about mustard gas in WWI, because my
Read more →MILES FRANKLIN AND HER BRILLIANT IDEA Many literary figures of the day visited Miles Franklin (1879-1954) at her home in the Sydney suburb of Carlton. The author of the beloved book My Brilliant Career, referred to the house as, ‘My old humpy.’ A delightful custom developed of
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