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…
The following is part of a letter printed in The Western Australian, 11 February 1919. It was written by a patient telling exactly what it was like to have Spanish Influenza and survive. It really brings home the pain and suffering of so many in that troubling time. I have been ill with the horrible…
Have you ever looked closely at the different notes in your wallet, or do you just glance superficially, interested only in the denomination? You all know and recognise the persons depicted on each note, but have you ever looked more closely at the rest of the decorations surrounding the portrait? I must confess that I…
I found this on Facebook and felt the need to share. A librarian somewhere has taken the time to arrange these books to bring us a very pertinent message. Simply brilliant!!! You need to read the titles from top left onwards
Sunbeam Mixmaster In the years between the First and Second World Wars, Ivar Jepson designed and built dozens of kitchen appliances, including the indomitable Sunbeam “Mixmaster”. Born in Sweden in 1903, Jepson loved to design things as a boy, studied engineering as a youth, and went to Germany to pursue graduate studies in mechanical engineering. …
In 1910 Henry Lawson wrote the following lines celebrating Sydney’s restorative Southerly Buster; ‘Tis a glorious mission, Old Sydney’s PhysicianBroom, Bucket and Cloth of the East,‘Tis a breeze and a sprayer that answers our prayer,And it’s free to the greatest and least. Often down on his luck, Lawson identified with the city’s urban poor; those…
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