This piece on NSW Labor Premier Jack Lang was inspired by a draft article written by Miss M.E. (Joyce) Cocks, in 1932. I was researching Joyce’s life at Sydney’s Mitchell Library when I came across a diatribe she had written against Lang; ‘The present Government deliberately refuse
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On Christmas Eve 1925, Evelyn Hobson told her parents and siblings that she was going on holiday for a few days to Manly, a favourite destination for Sydneysiders. Christmas Eve seems an odd time to choose, but Evelyn was 27 years old and gainfully employed as a
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Kiwi polish was first produced in 1908 by Melbourne business partners Hamilton McKellan and William Ramsay. The name Kiwi was a tribute to Ramsay’s New Zealand born wife. For two reasons the product was a major improvement on the old boot blacking (remember Charles Dickens working in
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Milk Arrowroot biscuits have been part of Australian life for generations; left out for Santa with a glass of milk, popped into school lunchboxes, and in the early days crushed and fed to babies in their bottles. A large part of the company’s advertising involved
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In July 1925 a young elephant calf called Jumbo arrived in Melbourne from London aboard the liner Port Curtis. If he was a little ‘swelled in the head’ it was because the previous year he had been a star exhibit at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
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The kero (kerosene) tin has been part of Australian social history from the mid 19th century, when kerosene lamps lit up the country. The empty fuel containers proved even more useful than the lamps themselves. This old photo, circa 1900, shows a Chinese miner outside his hut.
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Cape Everard Lighthouse in Victoria is now known as Point Hicks Lighthouse. The reason why is explained in a link at the end of this article. From The Argus, January 10 1935 STEAMER CAPE YORK TAKES TOYS AND STORES Although the Christmas and New Year festivities are
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