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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I have been ‘decluttering’ as we move into our new house. One item that nearly went into the skip was an old, glass covered wooden tray. Apart from accumulated dust and dirt it had one seemingly unsolvable problem, The gold braid trim under the glass had broken.
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Sam Hood was a well known commercial photographer in Sydney for many years. During WWII he would take photographs of service personnel, which were naturally very popular with friends and relatives. In November 1941 H.M.A.S. Sydney was lost in an encounter with the German ship Kormoran. All
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When the James Barnet designed Sydney G.P.O clock Tower was constructed in the 1890s there was a drawn-out dispute over the type of bells to be installed. Should the choice be traditional, heavy bells, or would a lighter, tubular variety be safer? Traditional won, but some still
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Sorting through documents while researching our family history I found a section of one of my Uncle Laurie’s school copy books. It had been kept as a treasured memento by his mother after his death in WWII. Each page was dated; from May 3 1932 through to
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Recently I posted the story of the disused Glenbrook rail tunnel during World War II. Located in the lower Blue Mountains of New South Wales, the tunnel was secretly used as an RAAF storage depot, for dangerous chemicals such as mustard gas and phosogene. The decision to
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SILENT WEAPONS OF WAR My research for this story began amid the startling news of the chemical attack on the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, and of chemical weapons being used in Syria. I knew about mustard gas in WWI, because my
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In February 1938, 15 countries from what was then known as The British Empire, assembled in Sydney for what would be the last Empire Games until well after the Second World War. It was a huge occasion, especially as the event coincided with Sydney’s 150th anniversary. After
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Dave McSorley was a local barber in Lithgow. He was also a heavy-weight boxer, and consummate showman. He once wagered that he could clean shave 1,000 men without a break. In the end he ran out of bristling chins, but still managed 420 shaves in 54½ hours,
Read more →FOLLOWING ON FROM GUY MENZIES; A LIFE LIVED AT FAST FORWARD. Guy Menzies, the dashing young airman who made the first solo crossing from Australia to New Zealand in 1931 had plans for even greater feats; perhaps a flight from England to Australia, which he estimated could
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