On January 19 1902, a buyer at the remote NSW mining town of White Cliffs received an order to supply several hundred pounds worth of opal to a jeweller in Melbourne. Being Sunday, the buyer was unable to insure or register the precious parcel. A risky decision
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Mention the term ’colonial architect’ in New South Wales and most people would respond with the name Francis Greenway. That is quite understandable, but let’s bring another deserving character out of the shadows. Who better to speak of John Cliffe Watts’ ability and character than Elizabeth Macquarie?
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I was intrigued to come across a reference to one of my articles on the internet recently. It was included in the description of a rare and beautiful item offered for sale by Hordern House Rare books, located in Sydney’s Surry Hills. This tiny object was of
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THE MYSTERIOUS DOWNFALL OF PROFESSOR CHAPMAN It is 1918 and Sydney University’s Professor of Pharmacology Henry Chapman has set up a unique test for his senior students. Their task is to identify the deadly poison present in a mixture he has prepared. He is amused and delighted when even the most brilliant
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On April 2 1905, the Brisbane Courier published an article on two young women. The girls were close friends, with a lot in common. They were both daughters of Brisbane publicans, both from Irish Catholic families, and both convent educated. They also shared a love of
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Today we romanticize the Australian bush, but a century ago the term had more negative connotations. The pioneers who had cleared the land were often perceived as dim witted yokels by their city slicker cousins. This
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Hector Macquarie was born on Scotland’s Isle of Mull in 1794. He was the illegitimate son of Charles Macquarie, Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s younger brother. Governor Macquarie took his nephew under his wing, famously dubbing him Hero Hector…which was to become an ironic nickname. The young man grew
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APOLOGIES IN ADVANCE, THIS STORY IS A BIT COMPLICATED! When St John’s church at Parramatta (New South Wales) was being remodelled circa 1817, Elizabeth Macquarie offered some advice to the project’s architect, Lieutenant John Watts (1786-1873). In 1895 Watts’ daughter, Mrs Margaret Elizabeth Bagot wrote; ‘Mrs Macquarie
Read more →A WEDDING On November 3 1807, Elizabeth Henrietta Campbell married Lieutenant Colonel Lachlan Macquarie at Holsworthy in Devon. The ceremony was conducted by the Reverend Owen Lewis Meyrick. Elizabeth had been caring for the minister’s grand-daughters, while impatiently waiting for Macquarie to return from army service in
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