In 1918 an article in The Sydney Morning Herald reported on brooms being hand-made in the Blue Mountains village of Blackheath; The brooms are manufactured under the most primitive conditions, the machine for binding them together being home-made, and it is contended by the maker that with
Read more →
Fire created havoc in the Blue Mountains and Lithgow during the summer of 2019/20. The heat was extraordinary. I am a firm believer in climate change, even though our beautiful Mountains have suffered very badly in years gone by. THE FURY OF FIRE The summer of 1952
Read more →
According to urban mythology, Sydney’s Sacred Ibis are actually a scary mutation of the seagull. The story goes that over succeeding generations, one strain of gull became larger, more aggressive, and far more athletic, until…..voila!; Instead of lolling about at the Sydney Cricket Ground as seagulls do,
Read more →
To be honest, Mr Wall, one of the Australian Museum’s pioneer curators, does not look well or particularly happy in the above photo. Let’s hope he had been more cheerful on his wedding day. On Friday, April 30 1841 The Sydney Advertiser announced; On Thursday, the 29th
Read more →
AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL RULES I grew up in the small Tasmanian town of Ulverstone, where Australian Rules Football was the sport we were passionate about. Ulverstone’s colours have always been black and red, hence their name, The Robins. In the 1960’s football was untainted by the corporate sector and
Read more →
I first heard of the Wheeldon case in July 2017, on The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s Radio National. The story looked back to a day in 1986. Retired Macquarie University professor Peter Mason had gestured his daughters Diedre and Chloë to play an old video. He could only gesture because he
Read more →
In 1903 tuberculosis was rife in Australia, as it was in much of the world. The Queen Victoria Sanatorium was established at a remote area near Wentworth Falls, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. The property on Burragarong Road (now Tablelands Road) had been
Read more →
On the afternoon of August 18 1937, Mrs Dorothy Bunyan of Lithgow attended a funeral. It was a particularly sad occasion; the child of Mr Brown, of one of the local school teachers, had died. She hurried home because her nine year old son Donald was due home from primary school.
Read more →
Hello, Editor Des here. Well today I went to my favourite restaurant in the whole of the Blue Mountains. I took along my camera to show you what it’s like; Do you know what? It’s in an old church, so I think it might be specially blessed. I
Read more →
FOR THE FIRST PART OF THIS STORY CLICK HERE. On May 25, 1934, Professor Henry Chapman was suddenly taken ill while at work in the Physics Building at Sydney University. He was rushed to hospital, but could not be revived. Initially it was assumed he had suffered a
Read more →