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Catherine Helen Spencer
The People on Australia’s Banknotes Australian banknotes contain portraits of Australians and others, from royalty to poets and preachers, who have played a significant role in the life of the nation. The people on the banknotes have made defining contributions to Australian society in many fields of endeavour, and their mark on our national story…

Project Wishing Well Returns to Yaralla
Following the death of Dame Eadith Walker in 1937 the Perpetual Trustee Company, the executors of Thomas Walker’s will, requested Lawson’s Auctioneers to offer the entire contents of Yaralla House and grounds for sale. It was deemed to have been the biggest auction ever held, taking 8 days to complete. The auction did not include…

From Our Collection
‘The Breville’ manual washing machine was made in Australia by Breville Pty Ltd in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown between 1935 and 1940. Sold as the Breville ‘ 5-minute washer’, this machine is simply a tub with a posser attached to a handle. Its selling point was that, being hand-operated, it was free of mechanical…

Shipwrecks of Homebush Bay
While browsing the internet recently, researching our August speaker, I came across an article by Cleo Braithwaite, who said: There is a floating forest growing out of a shipwreck in Homebush Bay. That was what the internet told me the other day. I was perusing pictures of the Most Amazing Shipwrecks in the World, looking…

Sydney’s Grandest Markets Open
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…

The House of the Future
At the Australasian Science Congress held in Hobart in January 1902, John Sulman, an English architect living in Sydney, read a paper entitled “A Twentieth Century House with suggestions on the solution of the Servant Problem”. He said: “It is probable that many middle-class households will, in the future, have to dispense with servants altogether,…