Editor Des has been bird watching with me for the last few months, and becoming quite the ‘twitcher’. Unfortunately he has a lot to learn, which recently led to a head injury…. and a severe knock to his confidence. It should be remembered that a male satin
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South Australian Victor Richardson was a talented all-round sportsman. He excelled at tennis, golf baseball and Australian Rules Football. He captained Australia in cricket and played in the infamous ‘Bodyline’ cricket series alongside Don Bradman. With this in mind, perhaps we can forgive him for a bit
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My great-uncle James (Jim) Allen was a miner. At 32 he enlisted in WWI, then returned home to work in the rich Brisies tin mine at Derby, in north-eastern Tasmania. I have vague memories of my grandmother talking about relatives at Derby when I was a child,
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SUEPRISE SNOW……It’s weird when you wake up at the crack of dawn and open the front door to find the whole landscape has changed. Trousers might have been a sensible idea, Editor Des. What one earth! While we were sleeping the snow was quietly falling. We don’t
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Driving into our Blue Mountains property after visiting Sydney recently we almost ran over a juvenile king parrot. I had to hop out of the car and shoo him off the driveway. He was too busy with an acorn he’d found to think about the dangers of
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Mrs Margaret Roche was a hard working, shrewd business woman. She rose from the lowly position of barmaid to become the owner of considerable property. Included were two hotels in Queensland; the Telegraph Hotel at Charleville and the property she lived in, the Claren Hotel, in the
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Where would we gardeners be without our wheelbarrows? I have early memories of being carted out in one by my older siblings. They have always provided fun for kids. I was interested to discover that the development of the wheelbarrow began in China around AD200. Chuko Liang,
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The victim, Jeanette Wicks. In 1935, Jeanette Wicks divorced her husband of seven years on the grounds of desertion. She subsequently supported herself by operating a tiny kiosk, located at the entrance to a four storey building at 97 York Street, central Sydney. Tobacco products and lottery tickets
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THE THREE MAIN PLAYERS IN A VICTORIAN SCANDAL; ONE OF THE MOST INFAMOUS ADDRESSES IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND. In 1870, Dr James Gully, the eminent ‘water-cure’ physician from Great Malvern (Worcestershire) fell in love with a patient young enough to be his daughter. She was the beautiful Florence
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There are plans to re-open the old tunnel to visitors. Construction of the now disused Glenbrook railway tunnel began in 1891. It was opened the following year. Artist Arthur Streeton, then just 24, had been living at Glenbrook for several months in 1891. His time was spent
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