In 1918-1919, when the Spanish influenza pandemic swept the globe, Australians – with their peculiar sense of humour – devised unique ways of dealing with the apparatus and cures popular at the time. For example, hideous faces were painted onto the face mask, or kewpie dolls and huge wire spiders hung from the sides. However,…
In response to our article in the October Nurungi, we received the following note from one of our members. I enjoyed your article on HMAS Sobraon, giving me more details of the ship and its final purpose. My great uncle Reginald Wallgate (last of 8 children) ended up as a boy committed to that ship…
Cracker Night was celebrated on one of two dates throughout Australia – November 5 and May 24. November 5, known as Guy Fawkes Night, was an annual commemoration, observed primarily in Great Britain, involving bonfires and fireworks displays, but brought to Australia in the early 1800s. It’s impossible to imagine it now. Who even knows that…
You never know what you might find on a leisurely stroll. This is the inscription on a plaque I found recently . . . This is the site of the first settlement on 10th January 1792ByWilliam Careless and James Weaversin the locality set up by Governor Phillip asfarms of the eastern boundary (later called Kissing…
Flavelle Bros. & Company Trading Token Henry Flavelle joined George Brush in an optician and jeweller’s business, Flavelle and Brush, at 87 King Street, Sydney in 1840. Towards the end of the decade, the partners moved more towards the jewellery, rather than the optometry end of their business. Brush left the business in 1850 and…
William was not yet five when his mother Ada died in August 1898. His father, John Shipham, died four years later. Now orphaned, William and his younger brother, Concord, were given over to the care of relatives. William went to live with his grandfather, Daniel Zoeller, a prominent local businessman and former mayor of Concord….
The HMAS Sobraon was purpose-built for the England to Australia migration route and originally launched in 1866. She operated for all emigrant passages except for the maiden voyage. She was a sleek, three-masted ship, intended to be the fastest travelling its route and, with only first and second class passengers, to cater for a select…
We’ve hit the magic milestone and can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. At this stage, the City of Canada Bay Museum won’t be opening to the public immediately but we will use the time to clean the premises, which are looking a little sad following the nearly four months closure. …
Leonard “Len” Daniels was born in England in November 1891. Like a great many of his contemporaries, he joined the British Army soon after the outbreak of the First World War. Unlike most of them, Daniels served his country in India. At some point, he asked for and obtained a transfer to the Royal Flying…
Flivver – made by Cyclops, Leichhardt, NSW, 1924-1929. A child’s ride-on toy called a Flivver. It was made in Leichhardt, Australia, by Cyclops between 1924 and 1929. The term ‘flivver’ originated as American slang for a cheap car or aeroplane. It also refers to a railway handcar or trolley car. By the 1920s flivver was…
The Darug tribe are an Aboriginal Australian people, who share strong ties of kinship and, in pre-colonial times, lived as skilled hunters in family groups or clans, scattered throughout much of what is modern-day Sydney. Originally a Western Sydney people, they were bounded by the Kuringgai to the northeast around Broken Bay, the Darkinjung to the north, the Wiradjuri to the west on the eastern fringe of…