About the Pavilion As many who come to the Parklands may know, the Federation Pavilion sits on one of the most important historical locations in Australia – the birthplace of our nation! What visitors may not know however, is that the Pavilion contains many clues to the site’s glorious past that can help you understand…
The Enfield system was a separate group of lines based around a depot in Enfield, in Sydney’s inner south-west. The system began as a steam tramway opening in 1891 between Ashfield station and Enfield. In 1901, this line was extended north to Mortlake, and in 1909 a branch to Cabarita Park was opened. The system was electrified in 1912. Services operated…
Gertrude Moberly was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on New Year’s Day 1880 and grew up in Walcha, NSW, where her father was rector. She moved to Sydney in 1894 where her sister, Nora Moberly, was matron of Dulce Domum Private Hospital in Hardie Street, Neutral Bay. Moberly trained as a nurse at Royal Prince Alfred…
This following book review was published in The Labor Daily (Sydney) on 24 June 1933. War Letters “Experiences of a ‘Dinki-Di’ R.R.C. Nurse” by Gertrude Moberly, R.R.C., is an instructive and interesting publication of letters written by Matron Moberly during the Great War. She rendered very considerable services during that War, with the result that…
The image above is a stunning snapshot of a piece of Sydney history that many are not familiar with. Today, we are all familiar with the Harbour Bridge, and take for granted the fact that we can easily cross the harbour by car, train, bike or bus. Many of us are familiar too with the…
An ornate pavilion was erected in Centennial Park for the swearing in of the first Governor General of Australia, Lord Hopetoun, the first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, and the first Cabinet at the official inauguration of the federation of the colonies in Centennial Park, Sydney, on 1 January 1901. The Sydney Morning Herald of 2nd…
This debate was a famous dispute in The Bulletin magazine from 1892–93 between two of Australia’s most iconic writers and poets: Henry Lawson and Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson. At the time, The Bulletin was a popular and influential publication, and often supported the typical national self-image held by many Australians, sometimes termed the “bush legend.” Many Australian writers and poets, such as “Banjo” Paterson,…
By 1891, with the six colonies at loggerheads and the Victorian and New South Wales economies in freefall, Australia’s great federation movement ground to a halt. The cause took another blow when its champion, Sir Henry Parkes, resigned as Premier of New South Wales later that year. The task of unifying the colonies fell to…
Dorothea Mackellar was born Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar at Point Piper in Sydney, NSW on 1 July 1885. Her parents were Sir Charles Kinnaird Mackellar, a notable Sydney physician, and Marion Mackellar (nee Buckland). She had three brothers, Keith, Eric and Malcolm. “My Country” is a poem about Australia, written by Mackellar at the age of 19 while homesick in…
This cherished timeless poem speaks to the core of the Australian heart with its line “I love a sunburnt country”. The love of field and coppice, of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance, brown streams and soft dim skies I know but…
The borough of Five Dock, which includes Burketown, Drummoyne, and Birkenhead, was incorporated on the 25th of July, 1871. It is bounded on the north by the Parramatta River, on the east by Iron Cove Creek and Parramatta-road, on the west by Concord and Hen and Chicken Bay, and on the south by Ashfield. lt…
Few people today would remember war savings certificates, a type of promissory note, sold to hundreds of thousands of Australians during World War I and World War II. With the outbreak of WWII it was again necessary for the government to find ways to raise money for the war. A new 6d (sixpence) War Savings…
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