‘La Donna’ was a journalist for many years at The Advocate, a Tasmanian newspaper known affectionally as ‘The Spud Digger’. In 1935 she wrote a fascinating, lengthy article on Mary Shadbolt, widow of my relative Linden Shadbolt. I always wondered about La Donna’s real identity, and have
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Professor Frederick McCoy was a highly respected academic at Melbourne University. He resided in the suburb of Brighton. In 1883 he received a letter from a friend, Colonel Mair. The Colonel asked if it was true that McCoy’s adult son Frederick, who had been living and
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I’m ashamed to say that I had no idea Western Australian born Dorothy Tangney (1907-1985) was Australia’s first female senator in federal parliament (elected 1943). In 1944 it was announced by the Government that her portrait was to be painted for the nation. The other woman to
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BEFORE READING THIS ARTICLE IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE READ PART ONE OF ERNEST’S STORY. In 1937 twenty year old Ernest Renault from Launceston became the world champion banana eater. Yes…strange, but true. 😎 After a difficult childhood there was a brief period when the possibilities of
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Bubble gum was one of my old Dad’s pet hates. Any gum was bad, but bubble gum was beyond the pale. Of course we kids adored it and took no notice of him whatsoever. It was invented by an American (well naturally eh?) in 1928. When a
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Don’t you wish someone still made biscuits such as raspberry filled Huon Hearts ❤️❤️😍and Tassie Creams? The latter featured chocolate filling and were stamped with a little map of Tasmania. I don’t know when the last Huon Heart rolled off the production line, but they were among
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Vita-Weat biscuits were introduced in Australia in 1932, by the UK company Peek Frean’s. For many years the factory was located in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield. The factory moved into its striking, art-deco building in 1937. A clock tower (shown in the above photo) was a
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Rivers Paterson (nee Staines) was born on the day her father Thomas drowned in the Bell River, between Molong and Wellington, in the central west of New South Wales. Thomas Staines was an ex-convict; a former blacksmith and farrier from Leicestershire. He was transported for life in
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My mother cooked on a cast iron Lux fuel stove for many years. She could judge the temperature of the oven simply by putting her hand near it. Her technique never failed, even for delicate sponge cakes or cream puffs. How on earth did she do that?
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Recently I came across a wonderful letter from my late father-in-law, Alan Conolly. In the early 1960s he was travelling the world for Silk and Textiles, the Hobart based company he worked for. Silk and Textiles was founded by Claudio Alcorso in Sydney. The factory relocated to
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