Author: siteadmin

  • Garden Island

    One of the prettiest islands in Port Jackson has the distinction of having given us our first bushranger, Black Caesar, whose story was in the August newsletter. The principal and almost the only policy of the Government of New South Wales during its earliest years consisted mainly of finding something to eat for the thousand…

  • Centenary of Spanish flu pandemic in Australia

    Why don’t we commemorate its victims and heroes? ‘Spanish flu’, the pandemic that killed between 50-100 million people worldwide, made landfall in Australia by 1919. About a third of all Australians were infected and nearly 15,000 people were dead in under a year, yet little is known of its generational impact. Dr Peter Hobbins investigates….

  • Russell Lea Manor

    Russell Lea Manor, also known as Russell Lea House, was the home of Russell Barton (1830-1916), and was situated north of Lyons Road between Sibbick Street and Lyons Road.  The suburb of Russell Lea takes its name from this grand home. Russell Barton rose from humble beginnings to become a pastoralist, mine-owner and politician. In the late 1870s…

  • The Colour Cure

    Under the heading “Occupying “canary” room.  Nerve Cases are Soothed” the following article was published on 24 March 1919. In the new Red Cross convalescent Docks, Sydney, NSW, the colour cure idea has been introduced by Miss Eadith Walker. This is an experiment in such treatment in Australia, and R. R. de Mestre, a young…

  • Olympic Trivia

    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…

  • Our Museum is Open

    Our COVID-19 Safety plan has been lodged with Council and we are permitted to open to the public. All precautions are being taken to protect our members, volunteers and visitors. Regular rules of social distancing and regular cleaning are being monitored by our COVID Safety Officer. With travel and other restrictions now is the time…

  • Nellie’s Putney Picnic

    Before the reform of Australia’s marriage laws in 1975, getting divorced was a difficult and generally humiliating experience.  One party had to prove their spouse was at fault in an open court of law. Lawyers could challenge the other side’s deposition, while seeking to show their client as the aggrieved party.  This often exposed intimate…

  • The Man on the Moon

    Monday, July 21, 1969. : The CSIRO Observatory in Parkes, Australia, transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 Moon walk to the world. Parkes is a rural town in the central west of New South Wales, located about 265km west of Sydney. The region was originally settled by pastoralists in 1865. Known as Bushmans…

  • Bushranging in Australia

    THE story of Australian bushranging divides itself naturally into three periods — that of the runaway convicts whom the terrors of the “System” drove to seek escape from its cruelties in the bush; that which had its beginnings about the time of the gold discoveries, when the bushrangers were generally free men of an adventurous…