Amy Alfreda Vickery inherited two warehouses in Sydney’s Goulburn Street when her wealthy father Ebenezer Vickery died in 1906. Two years later the warehouses would fund a mansion Amy built on The Boulevarde in Strathfield, called Lauriston. Miss Vickery’s other indulgence was philately and she built up
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The incredible story of Colin Wyatt – artist, author, adventurer, skier, musician, entomologist…THIEF Colin William Wyatt was born in 1909, son of British mountaineer and botanist James Fforde Wyatt. He was a graduate of Cambridge University. and later studied at the Slade School of Art. Two
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This story of the historic Lord Howe Island diorama in Sydney’s Australian Museum highlights the importance of a back-story in engaging people like me. 😎 I love birds, but I live in the Blue Mountains, and seabirds are not on my radar….unless it’s seagulls harassing me for
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Allan Riverstone McCulloch (1885-1925) scientist. museum curator, illustrator, journalist, and so much more. McCulloch’s legacy has been largely unacknowledged, but he is the subject of a recent biography by Brendan Atkins. I absolutely loved the book, although it may not appeal to everyone. McCulloch was born in
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Hello, Editor Des here. We have been doing a lot landscaping around our new house, digging trenches for pipes and stuff like that. I was helping the men the other day when I spotted something VERY interesting. It looked a bit like the moon, or a miniature
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My partner and I were wandering through Sydney’s newly renovated Australian Museum recently, enjoying all the natural history treasures on display. I hardly gave the Victorian armchair pictured below a second glance until I overheard a staff member explaining it’s significance to another visitor. Oh my word,
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In 1887 there was great excitement over a huge gold nugget found at Maitland Bar near Mudgee. The prize was unearthed on June 22, as three miners were working their claim; Jonathan Thorpe, Isaac Holmes and Fred Leeder. After washing two tubs of material Holmes and Leeder
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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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Irish born Mr William Sheridan Wall served as Curator of the Australian Museum in Sydney during the 1840s and 50s. He personally collected and preserved many native birds, but his greatest legacy to the institution was a creature from the deep. On December 5 1849 the schooner Thistle
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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
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