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.
The volunteers wondered just what they were getting into when, as they prepared to infiltrate Borneo, they were offered a cyanide pill. Some secrets take a very long time to emerge. Such is the case with a secret military operation formed as the war in the Pacific reached the halfway point in 1943. Men as…
In better quality late Victorian and Edwardian bedrooms, grand old wardrobes and dressing tables were flanked by fancy chairs and perhaps a small side table. At each side of the double bed would be small matching cabinets. Very important for those times was a place to hide the chamberpot. The essential toilet set of jug…
It is with great sadness we bring you the news that we have lost one of our oldest and most valued members. Betty passed away peacefully on Sunday, 20th March aged 95. Our museum will greatly miss her. We could always rely on “Our Betty” no matter what had to be done. She was always…
Valentine’s Day, or St Valentine’s Day, is celebrated every year on 14 February. Flowers, cards, chocolates, red hearts and romance. That’s what Valentine’s day is all about, right? Well, maybe not It all goes back to a mysterious, third century saint who suffered a brutal fate The celebration appears to have its roots in a…
Abbotsford was known as Bigi Bigi by the Wangal, the traditional owners of much of the land along the southern bank of the Burramattagal (Parramatta) River and its adjacent estuarine wetlands. It was a traditional meeting place for the Wangal providing an abundance of fish, eels and shellfish, as evidenced by the eroded middens of…
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…
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