Artist Arthur Streeton went to live at Glenbrook, in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, for several months in 1891. For a pound a week he had rented four roomed Daisy Cottage, located by the station master’s house. His original intention was to paint a
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HERE WE GO… I am cheating and listing the towns and villages of the Blue Mountains alphabetically rather than by elevation. This is pure indulgence on my part so that I can begin with; Blackheath, aka Bleakheath – Ranks first in this list and first in my
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Recently I posted the story of the disused Glenbrook rail tunnel during World War II. Located in the lower Blue Mountains, the tunnel was secretly used as an RAAF storage depot, for dangerous chemicals such as mustard gas and phosogene. The decision to stockpile the chemicals in
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SILENT WEAPONS OF WAR My research for this story began amid the startling news of the chemical attack on the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, and of chemical weapons being used in Syria. I knew about mustard gas in WWI, because my
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Recently I conducted a little social history survey on how the various towns and villages of the Blue Mountains are perceived. Do they have a distinct character? Well certainly most of them do. Most surprising of all to me was that Glenbrook is considered by many to
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Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, April 8 1930, what has been described as the most daring robbery in the history of Australia took place. The heist was conceived by Roy Wilkinson, a 24 year old railway porter. Wilkinson had been serving as escort on the mail train from Sydney to Mudgee, which
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