An interesting souvenir of the opening of the first railway in New South Wales from Sydney to Parramatta Junction is a miniature bucket.
The first train arrives at Parramatta from Sydney in 1855
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, however, were specially made for the occasion, and were solid wood, except for a small cavity in the top which contained about a teaspoonful of rum.
Men flocked to the hotel to take advantage of the offer, and it is said that they thoroughly enjoyed the joke. The little buckets were treasured as souvenirs of the historic event, and some of them are believed to be still in existence today. (Voice (Hobart, Tas.), Saturday 3 October 1936)
https://timegents.com/2017/07/03/vauxhall-inn-granville/ (Printed with permission)
“Said Hanrahan” is a poem written by the Australian bush poet John O’Brien, the pen name of Roman Catholic priest Patrick Joseph Hartigan. The poem’s earliest known publication was in July 1919 in The Catholic Press, appearing in 1921 in the anthology Around the Boree Log and Other Verses. The poem describes the recurrent natural cycle of droughts, floods and bushfires in rural Australia as seen by “Hanrahan”, a pessimistic man of…
Portion of a diary kept by a French-Canadian exile, François Maurice Lepailleur, whose group had been landed at the original wharf at what is now called Bayview . . . Wednesday, 11 March 1840. Today we disembarked from the Buffalo to go to work for the government. It was half past nine in the morning…
With the potential for a further extension of the lockdown due to Covid we do not know when the museum will re-open. As a result, we have cancelled our advertised October speaker – but we will certainly invite him back once things begin to open up again. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our July Rivendell…
After more than four terrible years of war rumours of Germany’s wish for a peace treaty swept the world during October and early November 1918. An armistice – a truce pending an official treaty – was finally signed on Monday, 11 November, 1918 and the guns fell silent. Official notification of the armistice was received…
We are missing out on the Olympic Games for 2020, so we thought we’d bring you some trivia to think about while we wait for next year. In 1896 the American Olympic Team almost missed the Athens games because Greece was still on the Julian calendar. (The modern Gregorian calendar is 13 days ahead) Some…
Australian theatre has a long and distinguished history. It is a history which was influenced by both the United States and Britain. British born entrepreneurs were the fathers of Australian theatre. Despite the shadow of the two great powers, Australian theatre had it’s own peculiar characteristics. It grew to be a unique institution for a…
The Vauxhall Inn is one of my earliest memories of Sydney. Both my father and g’father had cars and I remember a day when we drove down what was Dog Trap Rd, the railway crossing was still there,
×
Nurungi Printed Copy
Do not print this page until after the first of the new month
This window will automatically close after 10 seconds
The Vauxhall Inn is one of my earliest memories of Sydney. Both my father and g’father had cars and I remember a day when we drove down what was Dog Trap Rd, the railway crossing was still there,