The image, from a postcard dating to the first 10 years of the 20th century, is an evocative glimpse into a business that has long been linked to Martin Place (then Moore Street).
Martin Place had long been a bustling hive of activity, full of people going about their daily work. This bustling activity made it a perfect place for flower sellers to ply their trade, attracting passersby and many impulse sales. Yet most flower sellers did not start off in Martin Place at all, being forced off other, busier streets to make room for ever increasing traffic. Martin Place was the ideal place for flower sellers to congregate though, setting themselves up near the steps of the General Post Office and pouncing on people hurrying to mail their letters.
The earliest Martin Place flower sellers began to set up stalls in the 19th century, but it was during the 20th century that Sydney’s most iconic flower seller plied her trade. Rosie Shaw had once had high hopes of a career in opera, coming to Sydney from London in 1927 to seek fame and fortune in the land Dame Nellie Melba had called home. Rosie’s dreams never came to pass, but she grew to the status of a Sydney icon none the less. In 1931 she first set up shop on Martin Place, plying her customers not just with flowers, but with snatches of opera and tall tales of her history of a ballerina and singer. Rosie soon became very popular and increasingly influential, using her iconic status to act as one of the earliest defenders of gay men in Sydney. She sold flowers for 40 years, finally packing up her stall in 1971.
Without television, and before the days of wireless, family games were high on the list of favourite pastimes. Classics such as draughts, ludo, chess, snakes and ladders, checkers, dominoes and lotto occupied many a rainy day and lamplit evening. Cards and games generally were ideal pastimes for evenings, both in the home and at public…
I remember when the loo was a dunny,And the pan man came at night;It wasn’t the least bit funnyGoing 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 were boiled in…
Halloween finds its beginning as a Celtic Pagan festival called Samhain about 6000 years ago. The festival marked the end of Summer and the harvest season. It was believed that the veil between the living and the dead was very thin at this time of year. A huge bonfire would be lit to herald the…
What, you ask, is ‘Butt dust’? What do you do or say, when an innocent child asks you something so innocent and they are so serious? Read on and you’ll discover the joy in it! These have to be original and genuine. No adult is this creative!! MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old…
The iconic Menin Gate lions, past which thousands of Australian and other allied forces marched on their way to the Western Front battlefields, have been returned to Australia from Belgium and are back on display at the Australian War Memorial. From 1822 the stone sculptures bearing the Ypres coat of arms stood at the entrance…
During WWI approximately 160,000 Australians had been wounded, some of them permanently incapacitated. They would need to be restored to health and those unable to resume their former occupations needed to be re-trained and supported. Many needed assistance for the rest of their lives. During that time Eadith Walker formed a close relationship with soldiers…
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