THE AURORA & THE ANTARCTIC BOTTLE – A MYSTERY

THE AURORA & THE  ANTARCTIC BOTTLE - A MYSTERY

On May  7 1927 a strange story appeared in the Newcastle Sun. It said that  a Mr George Bressington  had been walking along a beach at Tuggerah, on the NSW Central Coast, when he  unearthed a half buried wine bottle.  On one side  there was an etching

Read more

The Puzzle of a Truncated Portrait

The Puzzle of a Truncated Portrait

Isn’t this a striking, full length portrait? The subject is Tasmanian born artist Florence Rodway. It was completed by her friend and fellow artist Norman Carter (1875-1963), in 1910. Unfortunately no colour version exists. The first mention of the portrait in the press was in 1911; Mr

Read more

THE LOVE OF LIBRARIES

THE LOVE OF LIBRARIES

Libraries (well in my opinion) are the most exciting places in the world. That’s because I was born curious. How right Eleanor Roosevelt was when she said; ‘I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most

Read more

THE MYSTERY PAINTING OWNED BY LACHLAN MACQUARIE.

THE MYSTERY PAINTING OWNED BY LACHLAN MACQUARIE.

Sydney’s Mitchell Library recently doubled the size of its exhibition gallery space.  In a new initiative, 300 works of art were selected for permanent display. Some have rarely been seen by the general public. As a member of the Library Circle I feel privileged to be sponsoring one

Read more

Miles Franklin’s Waratah Cup

Miles Franklin's Waratah Cup

MILES FRANKLIN AND HER BRILLIANT IDEA Many literary figures of the day visited  Miles Franklin (1879-1954) at her home in the Sydney suburb of Carlton.  The author of the beloved book My Brilliant Career, referred to the house as, ‘My old humpy.’  A delightful custom  developed of 

Read more

MISS JOYCE COCKS – SHOT AT IN SYDNEY’S MITCHELL LIBRARY

MISS JOYCE COCKS - SHOT AT IN SYDNEY'S MITCHELL LIBRARY

As a young woman,  Joyce Cocks became an attendant (and later a buyer) at Sydney’s historic  Mitchell Library. The Mitchell now forms part of the  vast Library of New South Wales complex.   AN ARMED ROBBER INTRUDES In 1923 an armed man entered the building on Macquarie

Read more

THE ‘BOUNTY’ BLIGHS OF BLACKHEATH

THE 'BOUNTY' BLIGHS OF BLACKHEATH

ONE BLIGH OF THE BOUNTY, TWO OF BLACKHEATH In 1910, Governor Bligh’s grandson, William Russell  Wilson Bligh (1827-1914), bought a house  called Whiteleaf Cross, in Tourmaline Street, Blackheath (now Park Avenue). By then William  was an elderly man. He had arrived in Sydney  in  1837 aged ten, under the

Read more

DEAR DAMNED DIARY

DEAR DAMNED DIARY

  It is such a privilege to have access to someone’s diaries. I  find myself handling  them with something akin to reverence. Recently I  have been in Sydney’s Mitchell Library  reading those  of  English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner.  Sylvia began them in 1927,  the year after she

Read more