On our open days we are often asked what is the meaning of the latin on the Walker crest – “Per Varios Casus”.
An approximate translation would be “Through diverse (or various) opportunities”, which would appear to be an indication of how his wealth was acquired. It’s not known if this was an old crest or whether it came about with our Thomas Walker.
The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was formed in Sydney in 1837 to produce town gas for street lighting. The original works at Darling Harbour with its outstations at Woolloomooloo and Haymarket were supplemented with smaller works at Balmain and Five Dock. As Sydney expanded, the use of gas for domestic and industrial purposes became…
One hundred years ago, another pandemic was causing devastation around the world. At a time where digital banking and contactless payments couldn’t easily substitute the use of cash, Danny John and Juli Liddicoat investigate what the world looked like for Commonwealth Bank employees and customers, as seen through the eyes of the Founding Governor Denison…
Strangers in a strange land is a good title for a sci-fi novel. It also accurately reflects how Australia’s founding fathers, our First Fleet convicts, would have felt on being dumped in an alien landscape on the other side of the world back in 1788. Also springing to mind are the 34 Irish convict rebels…
Did you see the gypsies on the road to Mlttagong, or Hordern’s tree on Razorback, when it was growing strong?Did you go in search of old Bea Miles when exams loomed near, to sit with her on the Town Hall steps and brush up on Shakespeare?And did you see old Rosies’ flower stall, as first…
Cockatoo Island was largely undisturbed until 1839 when Governer Gipps chose it for the site of a new penal establishment to alleviate overcrowding on Norfolk Island. Convicts were put to work initially quarrying stone for various projects around the colony. They also built stone prison barracks, a military guardhouse, granary silos, official residences and commenced…
This Hammersley tea and coffee set was a wedding present to my parents (Betty and Doug Robertson) who were married in 1947. It had pride of place in my mother’s China cabinet, in our formal dining room, being saved for good, but never used! I loved this tea and coffee set, only allowed to peek…
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