My partner Rob and I headed west to the historic New South Wales village of Hartley in the days before Covid. We wanted to visit the Talisman Gallery, in the hope of finding an iron sculpture for a eucalypt tree stump in our garden. I had in
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I have been revising a piece I wrote about pioneering women and their appreciation of Australia’s native flora. Not surprisingly, the Blue Mountains featured heavily. Once the first road was constructed from Sydney through to Bathurst in 1815, intrepid settlers followed. Then the iron ranges echoed To
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Engineer George Morris arrived in Australia in the 1890s. He settled in Sydney, marrying Priscilla Walker in 1903. The couple then moved to Lithgow, in the Blue Mountains, where George was initially employed at the town’s blast furnace. In 1910 he left, to open a foundry in
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CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS BY COACH AND HORSES In the 1850’s the journey across the Blue Mountains of New South Wales was truly daunting. On Sunday, November 27 1853, Thomas Simons was driving the Bathurst mail coach from Sydney when he came to the top of Mount Victoria. Ahead was
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THE EVANS PAINTING – AND A LITTLE MIRACLE For many years I have been attempting to trace four unidentified sketches by Elizabeth Macquarie, wife of Lachlan Macquarie, an early Governor of New South Wales. As a resident of the Blue Mountains, I would like to believe
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VISION FOR A NATION By 1815 Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s extensive building programme and his efforts to raise the moral standards of the colony of New South Wales were bearing fruit. Sydney, which had been little more than a squalid penal camp when he arrived, was becoming a
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BIG DAY OUT! The month of May can be a bit nippy in the central west of New South Wales. However, for the organizers of the Royal Bathurst Show there is a bonus. Inside the showground are giant elms, in full autumn glory. Having attended Sydney’s Royal
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