Category: Historic

  • Wellbank – the haunted house of the Flavelle’s

    Wellbank – the haunted house of the Flavelle’s

    This story is about a childhood memory of a haunted house. It’s a memory associated with my grandparents who lived in Davidson Avenue, Concord from about 1939 until their deaths in the 1960s. They were the best grandparents any kid could wish for.

  • There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza

    There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza

    Two of our granddaughters stayed overnight with us a few days ago. For some reason we started singing “There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza” and we were surprised that the youngest, who had just turned six, knew every single verse. So we sang it over and over with all sorts of…

  • Another ‘first’ for Australia

    Another ‘first’ for Australia

    What an ignoble beginning for the selfie. Our very own and much loved Australian Broadcasting Corporation believes the first use of the term selfie was on its web site in September 2002, probably coined by a university student in Armidale, New South Wales. In the post, the person with the split lip explained that it…

  • England, the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles

    England, the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles

    We were chatting yesterday about England, the UK, Great Britain and the British Isles. I quickly realised that despite being a white Australian descended from ancestors from that part of the world that I did not know what the various terms meant. So I did some quick research, and here’s the result: England is a…

  • Treasure Trove

    Treasure Trove

    I’ve just struck gold. In an earlier post about James Tyson I mentioned finding online information in the archives of a newspaper called The Queenslander. After digging a little deeper I found a most amazing resource funded by our Federal Government through the National Library of Australia. It’s called Trove. A note on the home page says…

  • Morse code lives on

    Morse code lives on

    Back in the 1830s, Samuel Morse and a couple of his mates were experimenting with sending electrical pulses over wires. To send messages they needed a language, and so was invented what is now called Morse code.  It’s very simple, consisting of only two things: dots and dashes. Each letter of the alphabet is allocated…

  • One of the greatest inventors dies

    One of the greatest inventors dies

    The advancement of the human race in recent times has not been the slow change of evolution. Rather it has advanced in leaps and bounds due to major breakthroughs by dedicated inventors. Sadly, many of them have not received the recognition they deserve. Have a look at this list to see how many of the…

  • Philippines – drive on the left or right?

    Philippines – drive on the left or right?

    When I was looking at those old movies of Manila that I posted yesterday, I noticed something strange: vehicles were driving on the left side of the road! But now all traffic travels on the right (mostly). So what’s going on? It turns out (according to Wikipedia) that that the Philippines originally drove on the…

  • The Philippines as it once was

    The Philippines as it once was

    This post is a collection of videos of the Philippines as it was in the old days. [youtube Ibt8TpFHaLU] [youtube Vle3ToCTSQw] [youtube riYFIEztOWA] [youtube 7tH6Yit_lPg] [youtube Zi_yWetmdtA] [youtube dXL5YvJ5c6k] [youtube rMFS2-Io_n8] [youtube ZOI6rc38Qic]