Cavill migrated to Australia, reaching Melbourne with his family in February 1879. He soon moved to Sydney and set up as a ‘professor of swimming’ at his Lavender Bay Baths. In 1884 he published a pamphlet How to Learn to Swim which outlined his theories on ‘natations’. Cavill’s name looms large in the history of Australian swimming. …
For many years one of the Blue Mountains’ most distinctive landmarks was a large white cross on the cliff-edge at Mount York which could be glimpsed from the highway between Little Hartley and Victoria Pass. Although now removed, the cross has been a continuing source of speculation and enquiry since its erection early in the…
At 16 I left home in Balgownie to live with my grandmother in Darlinghurst so I could get a job. I had developed into a fine young woman, the change having done me good and plenty of good food and rest. With my honest face and good looks I had no trouble at all. I…
Found in our collection was this stunning outfit. Unfortunately we don’t know anything about it. The only clue we have is an attached piece of paper saying it was an ‘Italian Judge’s Cloak, WWII’. Can you help? Special thanks to our wonderful model, Patricio, who also helps out as our brilliant clever handyman.
If you didn’t attend our August event you missed a great day. Betty Candy’s talk was a great success bringing over 60 guests to hear her. It’s amazing how many people didn’t know about this part of our history. Don’t miss out on future talks.
With the invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, Christiaan Huygens increased the best accuracy of clocks from 15 minutes deviation a day to around 15 seconds a day An Institute in Colorado created a clock so accurate it won’t lose/gain a second in 20 million years. This is the clock used for internet time….
In the 1840’s the most select residences in Sydney were a row of five houses in Liverpool Street called Lyons Terrace, facing the south end of Hyde Park. Elegantly attractive, they cost builder Samuel Lyons £5,000 each. Their early tenants included the Chief Justice, Sir Alfred Stephen, and the family of Major-General Edward Wynyard, commander…
Having ascertained that many bakers had been supplying shortweight bread of inferior quality, His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor announced that production and sale of bread would be controlled. All persons who wished to operate a bakery were required to obtain a licence, costing 5 shillings sterling, from the Police Officer. Granted a licence the baker was…
Little is known about the early life of Henry Brewer, one of the first free settlers to receive a land grant in Concord. Born in 1739, he must have spent his early days in the building industry, for he had extensive experience in carpentry, draftsmanship and architecture when he arrived in the colony with the…
An interesting souvenir of the opening of the first railway in New South Wales from Sydney to Parramatta Junction is a miniature bucket. When the railway was opened on September 22nd, 1855 the proprietor of the Vauxhall Hotel, which still stands today, advertised that he would sell rum at a penny a bucket. The buckets,…
Historians use historical maps for several purposes: as useful tools for reconstructing the past, to the extent that maps provide records of features, landscapes, cities and places that may not exist anymore or that exist in dramatically transformed form; and as a representation of the “worldview” of the mapmaking culture, and how that culture saw…
Mortlake was originally 30 hectares of land granted to John Miller, John Robertson and Benjamin Butcher in July 1795. This land was subsequently acquired by John Ward and then by his adopted heir, Alexander MacDonald. The area was originally called Bottle Point, the name used to designate the point at the head of the peninsula….
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