© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

The Queen in Newcastle, NSW, 1977: photo-essay

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited Newcastle, NSW on March 11, 1977 to open the city's new art gallery. It was the epitome of a "flying visit", with the couple arriving at Williamtown RAAF base in the morning, being driven to Newcastle for the opening, and then departing in the evening on the Royal Yacht Britannia, which had arrived in the Port of Newcastle that morning, escorted by HMAS Vampire. Britannia arriving in the Port of Newcastle on March 11, 1977. The small boat in the foreground is a police launch. People line the Stockton…

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Murdoch media turned me into a royal-watcher

If it weren’t for the Murdoch press I’d have paid no attention at all to Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. But eventually the noise and ruckus of the dominant media stable’s apparent anti-Harry campaign managed to penetrate the shield of disinterest I generally deploy against the British royal family. The Murdoch press, I find, is a valuable guide to opinion and fact. If Murdoch pundits seem to be foaming at the mouth and yelling an opinion then I often feel pretty confident that the correct opinion will be just about opposite to what they…

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The Adventures of James Tucker, Convict

When the book The Adventures of Ralph Rashleigh was first published in England in 1929, it was assumed the tale was a straightforward autobiography by a convict in the British colony of New South Wales. Its descriptions of life in the colony, and especially the miseries of convict existence, were so vivid and plausible that it wasn't hard to believe it might be a first-person account. But though the book was based on a manuscript that was certainly produced by a New South Wales convict, the truth was more complicated that it had seemed at first.…

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