Rivers Paterson – what’s in a name?

Rivers Paterson - what's in a name?

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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SUZANNE – THE BEAUTY CONTESTANT WHO BECAME A LADY

SUZANNE - THE BEAUTY CONTESTANT WHO BECAME A LADY

Suzanne (originally Susannah) Evans was one of five children. She was born in 1893 in the gold mining town of Walhalla, Victoria to John and Alice Evans. Her mother died when she was only eight years old. In 1914 the Evans family moved to Melbourne and the

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HILDA RIX NICHOLAS – ART AND WAR

HILDA RIX NICHOLAS - ART AND WAR

The Australian born artist Hilda Rix (1884-1961) was living and working in France when war broke out in 1914. She abandoned her studio at the Etaples  artists’ colony and fled to London with her widowed mother and her older sister Elsie. Many of her pictures were left 

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SISTER ROSA O’KANE – A HEROINE OF WWI

SISTER ROSA O'KANE -  A HEROINE OF WWI

Sister Rosa O’Kane was from Charters Towers in Queensland. She was aboard the troopship Wyreema when the armistice was signed in November 1918, and the ship was recalled to Australia. After the Wyreema reached Freemantle, Rosa was one of twenty army nurses who volunteered to care for

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HMAT BOONAH; AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE

HMAT BOONAH; AN UNEXPECTED BATTLE

The story of HMAT Boonah in WWI should have prepared us better for the challenges of the Covid pandemic. Arthur Thwaites was a chemist’s assistant from Parramatta. He enlisted on October 15 1917 as part of the medical corps, but was not called for overseas service until

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