Our visitors are encouraged to interact with the items in our local house museum. During the February 2025 Open Day, a visitor positioned the chess pieces in the drawing room: Black mirrors the white’s first two moves, setting up a symmetry that could lead to a draw or offer black some clever counter-attacks. Do you …
‘The Missing Magdalens’: the ABC resurrects a ‘hidden story’ discredited more than a century ago
by Jeff Kildea* The first quarter of the twenty-first century has seen several exposés of institutional practices that occurred during the twentieth century. Institutions once considered sacrosanct, including the Catholic Church, have not escaped critical examination. Harsh judgments have often been made. While care must be taken in applying contemporary mores to actions done in …
Newspaper Notes and Comments, 1899
In browsing through old newspaper files, seeking information as to the affairs of the district of St. George, one occasionally finds interesting snippets of news relative to the everyday life of the community. As a child I was warned by my mother against drinking direct from the tap. “Always use a cup, or at least …
A Synopsis Of Arncliffe
by Gifford and Eileen Eardley Gazing upon the Arncliffe scene, in this year of grace, southwards from Cooks River bridge at Tempe, it is difficult to envisage the general appearance of the area prior to the advent of settlement. The river was fringed with a dense growth of mangroves and the marshy tracts bordering the …
Electricity Comes to St George
by Laurice Bondfield Several years ago near Christmas, I went looking for a recipe for Christmas cake. The recipes I’d tried from modern cookbooks had not turned out to taste as good as I remembered from childhood, so I went searching for older cookbooks using imperial measurements in their recipes. Stuck in the back of …