CHRISTMAS IS NIGH As Christmas approaches I love looking back at seasonal celebrations in my Blue Mountains village of Blackheath. The following is from The Lithgow Mercury in 1909; There was very little stir here during Christmas, and everything passed off quietly. On Boxing Night a
Read more →Dave McSorley was a local barber in Lithgow. He was also a heavy-weight boxer, and consummate showman. He once wagered that he could clean shave 1,000 men without a break. In the end he ran out of bristling chins, but still managed 420 shaves in 54½ hours,
Read more →SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR LATEST UPDATE! My guardian Pauline Conolly grew a special rose called Hot Chocolate. ‘Come and smell it Des’ she said. So I did, just to make her happy. I took a deep breath of the perfume and then…wham!! A *#@!*!*# bee stung me
Read more →In 1928 the Sydney publishers Angus and Robertson received an enquiry letter and a sample of work from poet Mr F. C. Meyer of Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. To say they were not impressed is something of an under-statement. Now you might
Read more →BLAST FURNACE SPELLS START OF THE STEEL INDUSTRY On May 13 1907, the Lithgow Blast Furnace , built by William Sandford Ltd., was officially opened by the Premier of New South Wales, Sir Joseph Carruthers. It was essentially the birth of Australia’s steel industry, and a day
Read more →During World War One, seventy seven men from the small Blue Mountains community of Blackheath, NSW volunteered to serve. Their names are engraved on the local war memorial. Six were killed in action; H. CULLEN, R. MURRAY, J. SKEEN, D. SPRAGUE, J. STEENSON, & R. THOMPSON.
Read more →DISASTER! At three o’clock one afternoon this week my husband Rob called me outside. He looked very upset, and was holding a crimson rosella in an old towel. It had flown into one of the windows. We live in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, and
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