© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Trading on our insecurities

Feeling lonely? Insecure? Don't like your body? Losing your hair? Never fear, somebody somewhere has a solution. Just send money. Profiting from people's insecurities didn't start with the internet or social media, as anybody who rummages through old magazines can tell you. Last week I was searching for some articles in Adam, a 1960s Australian magazine that was targeted at men. One thing that struck me was the way these pulp mags and their advertisers zeroed in on the weaknesses, fears and insecurities of their readers. That led to me noticing that these ads were really…

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The Co-operative Colliery, Plattsburg. Part 2

My late friend Dulcie Hartley wrote about the Co-operative Colliery at Plattsburg as a follow-up to her work on the life and career of "The Miners' Advocate": James Fletcher. I've transcribed her unpublished typescript. Chapter 2 follows here: After purchasing Thomas Ireland’s share, William G. Laidley became the sole owner of the Co-operative Colliery, and he and his heirs continued as proprietors for more than half a century. Laidley, a man of wealth and integrity, was soon highly regarded by the miners. This was probably his first venture into coal mining but he later purchased land…

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Read more about the article He survived the Voyager tragedy
Des Corrigan, aged 17, at the time he joined Voyager. The middle image shows an unofficial medal struck for Voyager survivors.

He survived the Voyager tragedy

Des Corrigan likes to tell people that, in his career in the Royal Australian Navy: "I sank a ship, paid one off and commissioned another". He has scores of anecdotes from his eventful life at sea and ashore, but the sinking of HMAS Voyager in February 1964 looms largest. It is also the one he has spoken least about. For the first four years of their long marriage even his wife, Robyn, didn't know Des had been on the Voyager. Now he's about to turn 80 and has decided to break his long silence. Des with…

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