Edward Smith Hall was of those early pioneers whose great work in winning for us the freedom of the Australian Press has been obscured by the more widely known achievements of Wentworth. Bom in London in 1786, Hall came to Australia in 1812 armed with letters of introduction to Governor Macquarie. Failing to gain Macquarie’s favour, he joined Simeon Lord in forming…
I resume my friend’s chronology:- “Died September 18 Mr. Edward Smith-Hall in the 75th year of his age. This gentleman I think was the first secretary of the Bank of New South Wales when that institution opened for business in Macquarie Place in 1817; he was also, I think, connected with the “Monitor” newspaper and had a ‘row’ over his pew…
Professor Anderson, the Wizard of the North, was a well-known magician who travelled the world putting on performances. When he was in Sydney in 1859, performing at the Prince of Wales Theatre, he offered two prizes for the best conundrums from a lady and gentleman, to be determined on a fixed night. The Professor, of course, made it a condition that the winner…
A gentleman supplies me with some very interesting particulars as to Mr. Charles Hamilton Nichols, one of the proprietors of “Bell’s Life” at the time of Professor Anderson’s conundrum prize-drawing. Mr. Nichols was one of the sons of Isaac Nichols, first Postmaster of New South Wales, and another of whose sons was George Robert Nichols, solicitor and barrister. At least he had the privilege of…
On 21 July 1898 Sydney celebrated as Mayor Alderman Mathew Harris officially opened the Queen Victoria Markets Building. The Lady Mayoress, with a commemorative solid gold key, opened the druitt Street entrance. That evening the Town Hall was transformed for the 1400 guests at a ball celebratig the opening of these markets. Designed by George…
Have you ever looked at the date on the War Memorial in Burwood Park? It’s worth looking at carefully because it reveals an interesting fact . . the dates of the First World War are given as 1914-1919. This is in contrast to most modern sources which give the dates as 1914-1918. On researching the…
A favourite pastime of residents is to walk along the waterfront to enjoy the peaceful vista. Not many of us know that between the “green lights” opposite the cove is a monument to one of Australia’s greatest rowing athletes, Henry Ernest Searle. Little is known of his childhood except that he came to Sydney when…
As we board the 504 or the 438 for the CBD, most of us miss a little street 50 metres on our right hand side, Henry Lawson Avenue. Henry Lawson, an Australian literary giant of poems and stories, wrote mainly about the average Australian. He died 79 years ago, and should we today read his…
At the birth of Australia we had not one, but two giants of literature, Lawson and Paterson. Andrew Barton Paterson was born on 17 February 1864 near Orange NSW. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School, then he studied law at Sydney University and practised in Sydney. Paterson started writing for The Bulletin in 1889….
When Charles Dickens visited Australia, he used characters he met or heard about for characters in his various novels. Miss Haversham, from Great Expectations was in fact Eliza Donnithorne from Newtown, Sydney. Another character was Fagin from Oliver Twist, who was based upon Ikey Solomon. In the late 1820’s a paradoxical situation existed in Hobart…
A Day With the Happy Patients at Yaralla Noble Work of Great Founder (by E.J. Martin) “This Hospital for Convalescents was founded by the late Thomas Walker of Yaralla, in the hope that many sufferers would be restored to health within it.” This inscription, which may be regarded also as an epitaph, runs in gold…
In 1956 I was in the middle of the Simpson Desert attached to 1 Troop of 17th Independent Field Squadron Royal Australian Engineers as part of the advance party preparing the site for the intending round of Atomic bomb tests to be held later in the year. Towers were being erected and bunkers dug to…