People & professions, Such was life:
One of my favourite books in our children’s collection is a story written by explorer Matthew Flinders about his cat, Trim. This story languished for many years in the archives of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, until it was discovered and published in the literary magazine Overland in 1973.
People & professions, Such was life:
In 1894, Martha Needle was sentenced to death for the murder of her prospective brother in law, Louis Juncken, and executed in the Old Melbourne Gaol. She was also said to have poisoned her husband Henry, their three daughters Mabel, Elsie and May, as well as attempting to murder Herman Juncken.
Social life & customs, Such was life:
In 1884 Melbourne’s first tramway- a horse tramway in Fairfield- was built to promote land sales in the area (100 years of Melbourne’s trams, pg 1). Two horses pulled a carriage containing… Read More ›
Buildings & streets, Such was life:
In the 1870s Romeo Lane and Juliet Terrace in central Melbourne were home to men and women of the night. Supposedly men would ply their trade in Romeo Lane and… Read More ›
Melbourne is routinely depicted as a sport loving city with our devotion to Australian Rules football characterised as an obsession. The writer George Johnston, author of the novel My Brother… Read More ›
Arts & literature, Such was life:
For many months a charming illustration of a fairy child and a kookaburra has graced the walls of the Library’s Cowen Gallery in the exhibition Once upon a time: a… Read More ›
Cities & towns, Such was life:
In 1864 the railway connecting Melbourne to Echuca opened. This had an enormous effect on the town, with the resultant increase in trade turning Echuca into Australia’s largest inland port.
Buildings & streets, Such was life:
Melbourne’s skyline developed rapidly once the first passenger lifts were installed. The L. Stevenson & Sons warehouse in Flinders Lane had two of the first hydraulic goods lifts installed in… Read More ›
On 5 August 1914, the day Australians learnt of the declaration of war, the German trading ship SS Pfalz was just leaving Port Phillip Bay. The ship had originally planned… Read More ›
Social life & customs, Such was life:
Wondering what the cab fare rate was in Melbourne in 1973? Or the opening hours of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1911? Or where must imported explosives be unloaded in 1925? … Read More ›
