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Read more about the article Allan Richards’ showbiz obsession

Allan Richards’ showbiz obsession

Some people probably know more about movies and shows than Allan Richards, but you aren’t very likely to meet one of them. Allan’s knowledge of the film industry – and especially the musicals that are his greatest passion – is truly encyclopaedic. Allan started seeing movies at the age of four and never stopped. As an adult he took to live theatre, performing in a string of musical comedy roles, spent his little spare time providing entertainment spectacles at air shows and other events, dressed as “Buttons” the giant orange cat for his local television station’s…

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Read more about the article Some Newcastle businesses in 1891

Some Newcastle businesses in 1891

The Town and Country Journal was an interesting weekly newspaper which ran from 1870 to 1919. On April 11, 1891, it published an illustrated article about some businesses in Newcastle, NSW. The article reads like a modern-day advertorial, leading to a suspicion that the subjects may have paid for the glowing accounts of their business enterprises. The largest and by far the most important city of this colony after Sydney the capital is Newcastle, and in this issue some excellent views of the principal streets and places of business are given. Newcastle is the great emporium…

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Read more about the article 1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook
A rural police residence, possibly Kempsey. Perhaps the home of Alfred James Burrows.

1894 “blanket list” in a NSW country policeman’s notebook

Dick, Caroline, Magpie Billy, Maria, Bullseye Tommy, Jerry, Nancy, Jenny, George, Selina, Kitty, Jim Crow, Emily, Ebony, Topsy, Tiger, Old Billie, Dolly, Mary Anne & child, Emma, Spider Tom, Nellie, Alice & baby . . . Flicking through an antique pocket notebook that once belonged to a police constable in western NSW, I was arrested by the page headed: "Blankets 1894". In a notebook otherwise full of shopping lists, maudlin poetry, betting notes for horse races, lists of belongings at the scenes of lonely rural deaths and descriptions of wanted horse thieves, this unassuming list struck…

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