In the 1890s it was decided to ‘dress up’ Sydney’s Centennial Park with monuments of eminent people. One choice was a full size, marble statue of novelist Charles Dickens. However, there was a major problem, as M.P Mr J.D. Fitzgerald made known in State Parliament. He demanded
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One historical event I really wish I could have attended is London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. Those inventive, enthusiastic Victorians put on a display that dazzled the world. It was housed in a building so innovative it scarcely seemed real; the remarkable Crystal Palace. Of course eventually
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AN ENTREPRENEUR Early in 1894, schoolmaster George Ratten arrived in Parkes, New South Wales, from the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy. He was accompanied by his wife Eliza and the couple’s six children. Mr Ratten set about building a private, co-educational college in Mitchell Street, opposite
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