At the beginning of March, 1841 there was a devastating fire at the Albion Mills, in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The owners, Messrs Hughes and Hosking, were shipping agents and importers. Many Sydney merchants had produce stored at the mill and suffered serious losses. Hughes and Hosking took
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The New Ivanhoe Hotel is located on the Great Western Highway at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. It changed ownership recently after many years and has been renovated The following photo was taken before the update, but fortunately its art-deco interior has been
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A LIGHT-HEARTED ‘JOURNEY’ AROUND SYDNEY SUBURBS Currently Sydney is comprised of 658 suburbs. That’s because the city became so spread out when most of us lived on quarter acre blocks. Let’s face it, you could fit the residents of leafy Killara into one inner city high-rise. The
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The Bowden family was lost when the S.S. Waratah disappeared without trace in 1909. enroute to London from Australia. The full story can be read HERE. Among the 211 passengers and crew on board, six members of the Bowden family were listed, travelling third class.
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During the Christmas holidays in 1992, three primary school children in Western Australia came across a giant, fossilized egg in the sand dunes at Cervantes Beach. Jamie Andrich aged nine and his cousins Kelly (9) and Michelle Rew (7) had no idea of the importance of their
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Lonicera nidita is a type of honeysuckle used in topiary and hedging. It’s often known as box honeysuckle. Tiny birds such as blue wrens love to hop about in it…… and on it, searching for bugs. It will cope with frequent, light clipping and becomes dense and
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In a now famous reference to Queen Elizabeth; ‘I did but see her passing by, and yet I’ll love her until I die.’ Prime Minister of Australia R.M. Menzies. (1963) Early in February 1954, a group of WWI diggers travelled down to Sydney to see the young
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I can’t say that I like spiders, but I have become quite fascinated with the ones I see in my garden here in the Blue Mountains. Of course most of them I don’t actually see….only their intricate webs. People on an Australian spider ID site told me the
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In Sydney’s Botanic Gardens there is a very special Norfolk Island pine known as The Wishing Tree. It is a replacement of the original, which was planted in the early days of the colony. A sign explains its history, and its association with Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s wife,
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Specimens of the Australian native Banksia serrata were collected by Sir Joseph Banks in 1770 and later named for him. They are funny, gnarled trees that look ancient long before their time (rather like weather beaten Australian gardeners). Serrata refers to the tough, saw edged leaves; Their knobbled trunks
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