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Monthly Archives: September 2020

Read more about the article Tales of the uncanny, from my own life
Redback spider, photo by Toby Hudson, via Wikimedia commons

Tales of the uncanny, from my own life

Every day, when I drove my old Hillman Minx home from school or wherever I'd been, I used to love hitting a right-hand corner not far from home. The road wasn't kerbed, and there was plenty of loose gravel on the outside of the corner, so if I drove into the corner just right I could let the tail of the car slide sideways before I headed up the straight to home. They were quieter days in our suburb then. I'd be horrified if my kids drove like I used to, but it honestly didn't seem…

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Read more about the article Newspapers, families and skeletons

Newspapers, families and skeletons

It's interesting to see how much newspapers have changed in Australia. And interesting too, to reflect on how much is lost when small papers close. From the point of view of historical or family researchers, old newspapers are a tremendous storehouse of information, from important stories to bits of trivia that help flesh out pictures of people in the receding branches of family trees. While access to many old papers is difficult, Australia's amazing Trove resource offers much more than many people might imagine, as I discovered this week. It started when it suddenly occurred to…

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Read more about the article Three ship pile-up in Newcastle Harbour
The entangled ships Ditton, Port Crawford and Peeblesshire in Newcastle Harbour, April 1902.

Three ship pile-up in Newcastle Harbour

It was just on dark, April 4, 1902; the weather was taking a turn for the worse, and among the fleet of ships that appeared off Newcastle, NSW, hoping to enter harbour, was one of the world's biggest three-masters, the 311-foot-long (95m) Ditton. The harbour, apparently, was already reasonably crowded, and there were two fully laden ships - The Port Crawford and the Peeblesshire - tied up at the so-called "farewell buoys" in the channel, ready to leave next day. It was a situation fraught with danger and, unfortunately, the danger was not avoided. The Ditton…

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