There is a statue of the Australian poet and writer Henry Lawson in the Sydney Domain. Fixed to one place, it could be considered an uncharacteristic representation of a man who moved about so much during his life. High in the Blue Mountains at Mt Victoria there are other memorials to Lawson. On a cliff edge above the Kanimbla Valley, a rock platform has been dedicated to his memory. Just below this rock there remains part of a cliff-top walk.
Remembering Private Shirley
© Jim Low
When I was a child, my family often used to go for picnics on a Sunday. After Sunday school, my father would have the car ready, my mother would have the sandwiches made and the drinks packed, and we would head off to some interesting part of Sydney.
Peggy Brooks – Sweetheart of Song
Peggy Brooks was born Jean Linda Switzer in 1912 Footscray, Vic, to Henry Andrew Switzer and Emily Jean McCubbin, (known as Harry and Emma). She studied toe, ballet, and tap dancing with Jennie Brenan in Melbourne, Her first known foray into the world of entertainment was as a dancer at the age of fifteen when she did her first shows at the Saturday night “pops” at the local theatres. Continue reading “Peggy Brooks – Sweetheart of Song”
Syrian Mary: A Remarkable Woman
Syrian Mary was the name given to a hawker who lived in the New South Wales township of Mudgee. She walked the lonely roads and tracks of the district approximately between the years 1890 and 1910.
Twice each year she would routinely walk north-west to Coolah, a distance of just over 200 kilometres return. Also travelling south-east to Lithgow and back, a return trip of over 250 kilometres, she repeated this trip each year as well. Continue reading “Syrian Mary: A Remarkable Woman”