© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

The man who was Hanimex

There was a time when Hanimex-branded consumer goods - particularly in the photographic line - were everywhere you looked; in Australia at least. There were Hanimex cameras, projectors, slide viewers, binoculars and, quite honestly, too many other products to list. Growing up in Australia in the 1970s I often wondered who was behind this prolific corporation, but I never followed up on the question until, a year or two before the Covid pandemic, my wife and I stayed at a bed and breakfast at Bellingen in NSW, the owner of which, Frank Wynen, told me he…

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When the familiar becomes unfamiliar

AS a child sometimes I used to stare into a mirror at my own face, unblinking, for minutes at a time. It got scary. Because at a certain point my own familiar face stopped being recognisable and I saw a weird creature. I couldn’t look at it for long, but nor did I have to, since the merest movement of my eyes brought back the familiar me. But I thought about what happened and I realised that the benign interpretation of my face that I had become accustomed to wasn’t necessarily the only way it could…

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Read more about the article The water of remembrance
Jack Parsons in WW1 (left), WW2 (right) and the fountain in Gregson Park

The water of remembrance

In Gregson Park, Hamilton (Newcastle, NSW), a drinking water fountain stands near the large war memorial. On one side is a plaque that reads: Dedicated to the memory of John William Parsons who made the supreme sacrifice on the 12th July 1945 while prisoner of war in Ranau, Borneo. 2/3rd Motor Ambulance Corps 2nd AIF Also member 8th Field Co Engineers AIF 1914-1918. Age 49 years Erected by his wife and daughters.” In truth, the fountain memorialises Jack Parsons and his wife Doris, both profoundly affected by the world wars of the 20th Century. The story…

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