Tasmania, as with most of the world, was coping with severe economic depression during the nineteen thirties. The State Government initiated capital works programmes to employ those who were ‘on sustenance’ as it was called. It was considered beneficial to the physical and mental welfare of the
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Gawler is a tiny rural community, several kilometres inland from Ulverstone, on Tasmania’s north-west coast. On April 4 1929 a tragic event left residents of Gawler in a state of utter grief. During widespread flooding in northern Tasmania, eight young people drowned when their covered Ford truck
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Peter Kotz, a fellow social history buff, took the photo below. The rusting, 70 lb golden syrup drum was found on a rough bush track near Alice Springs. Golden syrup was such an integral part of life in the parched Australian outback. It replaced butter on a
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One feature of cooking during the Great Depression, especially in rural areas, was home made kitchen ware. I especially like the creativity of the flour sifter; Flour reminds me of my husband’s family, who owned Conolly’s flour mill in Goulburn. It’s an unfortunate truth, but they did
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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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A SMALL PIECE OF WOOD Apparently wooden ‘dolly pegs’ were originally hand made by Gypsies in the UK, who sold them door to door. Sometimes they were carved from hedgerow wood, sometimes they were just a couple of sticks bound together with strips of tin. In Tasmania
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CONTINUING THE STORY OF SYDNEY SOCIALITE AIMÉE EDOLS . CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE In 1932, bankrupt Sydney socialite Aimée Edols evaded police for nearly six months. She had turned for help to an old friend, Amy Styles, from nearby Vaucluse. Mrs Styles was a widow, whose husband had drowned
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THE GOOD LIFE FOR MRS EDOLS The reception for the couple was held at the prestigious Australia Hotel . In 1930, 47 year old Aimee Edols was living in Sydney’s fashionable Eastern Suburbs. Her husband Ernest was a retired grazier, whose family had once owned Burrawang, an extensive property at
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GOLD IN THE BLOOD? Many years ago one of my elderly Larcombe aunts sent me a yellowed newspaper cutting of a famous gold find in Western Australia, It was The Golden Eagle nugget, discovered in 1931. I can only presume that the Jim Larcombe in the article
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FAMILY HEIRLOOMS Throughout my Tasmanian childhood there were two small oil paintings hanging beside the open fire in our farmhouse sitting room. When the wind blew, the hessian backed wallpaper ballooned out, and the pictures nearly fell off their nails. I was always intrigued by them, and when
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