‘Bigger than Ben Hur’. the saying goes. Well that was certainly true of the fire that engulfed Sydney’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1902. Impressario J. C. Williamson’s production of Ben Hur had been wowing audiences since opening night on February 8. It was the biggest and costliest
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The first case of bubonic plague in Sydney occurred in January 1900. Sporadic cases occurred long after the initial outbreak and the Zoological Gardens at Moore Park did not escape. In 1902, they were forced to close, at least temporarily; Naturally the question arose of how the
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It’s hard to imagine Sydney having an epidemic of bubonic plague, but that’s what happened in 1900. The infection arrived on a visiting ship in January, and spread in overcrowded, unsanitary slums. THE PLAGUE – PARRAMATTA’S PRECAUTIONS I hadn’t realized there was a vaccine against plague, but
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