On the train to Sydney recently I was reading Norman Lindsay’s autobiography My Mask. One of the photos in the book was of Lindsay and his son Ray aboard the three masted sailing ship the Joseph Conrad, when it visited Sydney Harbour in December 1935.
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Sadly, I never met my father-in-law Alan Conolly. He died far too young, before I met my husband Rob. He travelled extensively during Rob’s childhood so father and son missed out on much precious time together. In the late 1960s, when Rob was still at school in
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In March 1866 a 100lb shipment of a new material, nitro-glycerine, arrived in Sydney and was stored in the Bridge Street warehouse of Messrs Molison and Black. The substance, also known as Nobel’s Blast Oil, was to be tested by the importer as a means of blasting
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Irish born Mr William Sheridan Wall served as Curator of the Australian Museum in Sydney during the 1840s and 50s. He personally collected and preserved many native birds, but his greatest legacy to the institution was a creature from the deep. On December 5 1849 the schooner Thistle
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ICE BLOCKS, TEN CENTS A POP! On April Fools’ Day 1978 Australian electronics entrepreneur Dick Smith arranged for a giant, fake iceberg to be towed into Sydney Harbour. In a co-ordinated campaign, 300 of his employees then rang various radio and television stations, saying ‘What on earth
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Each Australia Day, commuter ferries race down Sydney Harbour, decorated with bunting and loaded to the gunnels with cheering supporters. They remind me of well dressed matrons competing in the hundred metre dash at school sports days. In 1984 the exertion proved too much for the aging
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