One Christmas when I was a child my father brought home a gum bough from the bush as an alternative to the traditional pine tree. We all loved it, especially the scent of eucalyptus throughout the house. My mother was delighted to have a break from falling
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As someone who frequently writes on crime, a tale of death on the Indian Pacific Railway came to mind when my partner Rob and I booked our trip from Sydney to Perth. I even checked Dr Google to see if anyone had written a murder mystery inspired
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HITTING OFF One of Sydney’s first golf courses was laid out in the grounds of Grose Farm; land on which Sydney University was later built. We have proof of an official club being formed in a 1839 diary entry by the prosperous young merchant Mr Alexander Brodie
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According to urban mythology, Sydney’s Sacred Ibis are actually a scary mutation of the seagull. The story goes that over succeeding generations, one strain of gull became larger, more aggressive, and far more athletic, until…..voila!; Instead of lolling about at the Sydney Cricket Ground as seagulls do,
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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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To be honest, Mr Wall, one of the Australian Museum’s pioneer curators, does not look well or particularly happy in the above photo. Let’s hope he had been more cheerful on his wedding day. On Friday, April 30 1841 The Sydney Advertiser announced; On Thursday, the 29th
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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
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CONTINUING THE STORY OF SYDNEY SOCIALITE AIMÉE EDOLS . CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE In 1932, bankrupt Sydney socialite Aimée Edols evaded police for nearly six months. She had turned for help to an old friend, Amy Styles, from nearby Vaucluse. Mrs Styles was a widow, whose husband had drowned
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THE GOOD LIFE FOR MRS EDOLS The reception for the couple was held at the prestigious Australia Hotel . In 1930, 47 year old Aimee Edols was living in Sydney’s fashionable Eastern Suburbs. Her husband Ernest was a retired grazier, whose family had once owned Burrawang, an extensive property at
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WHO GIVES A FIG? I DO! I love Sydney; for the harbour, the museums and theatres, but particularly for it’s amazing old fig trees. Could there be a more iconic image of the city than in the photo below? Sydney sandstone and fig roots inextricably entwined. That
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