I Remember – Do You?

I Remember – Do You?

I remember when the loo was a dunny, And the pan man came at night; It wasn’t the least bit funny Going out the back with no light. The interesting items we perusedFrom the newspapers cut into squaresAnd hung from a peg in the outhouse –It took little then to keep us amused. The clothes…

I Remember …

Starched circular petticoats which stood up by themselves after being ironed Listening to the “Argonauts” and “Yes What” on the wireless Taking the billy can out to meet the milkman in the morning. It was filled from the huge milk cans on the back of a horse-drawn cart. Catching the tram to school. The fare…

Memories of Old Concord

I was very interested in Mr. Stanton’s article on old Concord. I would like to add to it. I have been waiting for an abler pen than mine. I went to Concord School 72 years ago (1889). Concord School then was a small weatherboard building on the corner facing Burwood Road (Wharf Road) about fifty…

Kit Johnston – Memories

Kit Johnston (c1978) I came to Concord 63 years ago and have seen many changes. Our road, Alexandra Street, was not made and we had no kerb and guttering and no concrete footpaths. As a matter of fact, the road was so bad, I was coming home from Burwood and the pram with my young…

John and Mary Bray

John and Mary Bray

Private John Bray and his wife Mary reached Sydney in June 1790 on board the Neptune with the first detachment of the New South Wales Corps. Within three years John Bray had been promoted to the rank of sergeant and on 11th November 1794 he was granted thirty acres of land at the “Entrance of…

1901 Scandal

1901 Scandal

“Now I Confess”, says Frances, 90. It took a tomboy to talk the young ladies of Enfield, Mortlake and Concord into taking swimming lessons back in 1901. The schoolmarms of the day were scandalised when young Frances Ashton, then 16, walked in bold as brass and offered to teach their pupils how to swim. Some…